Hush Now
by phoenixreal
Summary: Pepper, worried over Tony's reclusiveness, decides to see if housing the Avengers might help. She thinks it has something to do with what happened in New York. When the others arrive, though, they think something more is going on with their resident genius. Stark Spangled Banner Romance with a side of Daddy Kink. Warnings Inside.
1. Tony's Secret

**Hush Now**

* * *

**Chapter One**

_Tony's Secret_

* * *

Tony almost never left the tower unless he had to do so anymore. She couldn't identify an exact point when it began, but it seemed to happen not too long after the Battle of New York. In fact, it had become so bad that Pepper had simply stopped trying anymore. At first, she'd tried to coax him into going out. To his credit, he tried at first. Then it seemed like he was ever closer to just turning on his heels and running away the minute people began to gather. The Battle of New York was fresh in everyone's thoughts, and everyone wanted to know about it. Tony, however, didn't want to talk about it at all, not even to Pepper.

She was worried when the behaviors seemed to worsen after the first year afterward had passed. He rarely slept, refused to leave except on missions inside the suit, and then refused to stay or be debriefed afterward if he could possibly avoid it. He didn't have anything to do with Stark Industries and Pepper had taken over completely as CEO. Rumors were wild about the media that Tony was in rehab or drowning himself in a bottle again.

That was how she came up with the idea of contacting Fury about making Stark Tower the base of operations for the Avengers Initiative. She thought that maybe, giving Tony something to do would help. It wasn't like they would be there all the time, after all they all went on their own missions, and working together wasn't something they always would do, but it gave them a home to come back to and she thought it would be good for them all.

"JARVIS, where's Tony?" Pepper asked as she entered the common room they'd set up.

"Sir is in his shop, Ms. Potts," JARVIS answered immediately. Surely he hadn't forgotten that today was the day the others were arriving.

"Will you please notify him that the others are arriving soon?" she said with an exasperated sigh.

"Indeed, Ms. Potts, I have informed him several times this morning. He has forbidden me from mentioning the fact again."

She sighed again and rubbed a hand over her forehead. "Thank you, JARVIS," she said, and headed to the elevator.

She went up to the roof to await the helicopter that was bringing Natasha, Steve, and Clint to the Tower. Bruce was driving and Thor was still in Asgard, currently unreachable. The helicopter set down, letting out the three coming from the helicarrier.

"Hey guys, how are you? Been a while," she said, smiling at them.

Natasha nodded. "Yes, it has!" She said, hugging her and then stepping back as the helicopter took off. "You look worse for the wear, Pepper."

Pepper gave her a strained smile. "Let's go in, okay?" she said, leading them down to the common area they had built after the damage to the tower from the invasion.

Clint nodded appreciatively and dropped his duffle by the elevator and hopped over the back of the couch to sit and look around. "Nice, he said."

"Thanks," she said, going to sit over on the loveseat next to the sofa. "Have a seat, I'll let you guys know the reasons for all this," she said, smiling again in that strained way that even Steve could pick up on.

Steve sat down by Clint while Natasha curled up cat-like in the chaise lounge at the end. He looked up. "There's something more on your mind than just keeping the team located in a central location."

She nodded. "Bruce and I already talked, and of course, Fury doesn't know this, I wouldn't tell him such things, but the reason I wanted you all here is because Tony needs it more than any of you guys know," she said, leaning back and rubbing the bridge of her nose silently.

"Tony?" Clint asked with a frown. "I didn't think he needed anything."

"Tony's changed since…since the battle, and I can't help him, I can't reach him anymore, so I thought…you guys shared the experience, and maybe, just maybe you could help him."

Steve looked at her. His first thought was post-traumatic stress. He knew the name had changed since he fought on the battlefields of the forties, but he knew the signs of it. Withdrawal and anxiety was a couple of them. He nodded slowly. Tony had been through an awful lot around that time, and he was sure that the man still had problems from beforehand but he didn't know him that well. In fact, other than passing meetings he hadn't actually seen any of the other Avengers since they'd fought off the alien invasion. While his respect for Tony had certainly increased after he nearly sacrificed his life to save everyone in New York, he had some serious reservations about the self-described genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist. He certainly wasn't what he had expected out of Howard's son.

"We can try to help, but you know very well if someone doesn't want help there isn't much you can do," Steve said standing up and sighing. "I take it we all have assigned rooms?"

Pepper shook her head. "Actually, Tony converted a whole floor for each of you."

Clint and Natasha exchanged looks. "He what?" Natasha asked.

Pepper nodded. "When I told him about it, before Fury approved it, he'd already started the remodeling. Thor, when he comes here, has the top except for the common room we're in with the platform attached. Tony thought it would be good for him since he uses the Bifrost to get here. Tony of course, also uses the platform. The level below us is your floor Clint, and he wasn't sure what to put in it, so he left a card in your name on the bed in there. He did the same for you, Natasha, your floor is underneath Clint's. Steve is below that, and Tony decorated it in a way he thought you'd like, but he left a card for you to use as well. Then the two floors below that were converted for Bruce, including a lab and what Tony called the Hulk Playroom."

Clint let out a low whistle. "Like, how much is on the cards he left us?" he asked. Natasha smacked him.

Pepper smiled and reached into her bag pulling out a phone and a table. "They're connected to a special account he opened for the Avengers. I'm not sure what he transferred into it, but he said whatever you wanted wouldn't be a problem, just no buying Ferraris or Lamborghinis on his dime. He says he can build a better car anyway if you want one."

"The other thing he wanted was to give you each a StarkPhone and a StarkTab. I've left one of each in your bedrooms. You'll also find small kitchens and lounge areas on each floor, as well as the training facilities located below Tony's level. There's a full Olympic pool down there, and an archery range. I don't think I've seen him spend so much on the Tower before. And he insured it through the roof so if it gets destroyed by another alien force he's not out a bunch again. He even made sure there's a clause for alien invasion or supervillain destruction," she smirked as she looked at them. All three were staring back astonished. Bruce's reaction had been much the same over the video chat they'd had the night before. "Anything you need, ask Jarvis, he's programed with anything you need."

She stood up, putting away her own things and pulled the bag over her shoulder. "Now, if you will, I have a date tonight. I'll see you all tomorrow if I make it by, if not, enjoy the facilities."

Steve stood up as she headed toward the elevator. "Date?" he asked. The last Steve had heard Pepper and Tony were together.

She turned and smiled. "Happy asked me to a dinner theater. Certainly can't turn my boyfriend down, now can I?" she said and left.

Clint turned to Steve. "Oh…wow. I didn't expect that."

"Neither did I…" Steve said, sitting down and looking at the other two.

Just then, the elevator opened and Bruce came out, lugging a hiking pack and smiled at them. "Oh, everyone's already here?" he asked. "I thought I'd beat you guys, but the trip took a little longer than I expected. "Where're Pepper and Tony?" he asked, looking around.

"Pepper left on her date with Happy," Natasha said, getting up and going to the bar to grab a soda water. "And we haven't seen Tony."

"Not much to be done if he wants to be a hermit," Clint said, getting. "I've got some shopping to do," he said with a grin, heading to the elevator.

The others admitted that this much was true and followed suit, heading to their own areas to investigate. What they found honestly amazed them. Each of them knew that Tony had to have put thousands of dollars into what he'd put together, and had surprisingly accurate knowledge of their likes, almost to a scary degree. The kitchenettes were obviously designed to be used often, but were nothing compared to the huge common kitchen he'd built. It was truly amazing. However, it ended up being nearly a week before they had even the barest glimpse of their host, and then, it seemed, only by accident.

Clint and Natasha had been out on a mission with Steve to help clear up a minor disturbance in some nameless foreign country and ended up crashing on the couches in the common area at around four in the morning, exhausted and wired at the same time. They ended up just staying there and talking over what had happened. All three were surprised when the light flicked on and Tony wandered past them, a coffee cup in one hand and a tablet in the other. Everyone just stared in wonder as though they'd found some elusive creature.

"Tony!" Clint said, and he practically jumped out of his skin, his cup dropping and shattering in the quiet room. He turned around, the hand previously holding the coffee cup empty and against his arc reactor and staring wide eyed at them all.

"Oh…um, sorry, I didn't know you'd be up," he said, glancing down as the floor cleaning bot proceeded to sweep up the remains of the cup. "Just ran out of coffee down in the shop," he said, turning and going into the kitchen without another word.

Steve got up and followed him, seeing him rummaging through the pantry and emerging with a package of the aforementioned coffee. He turned around and started again when he saw Steve standing between him and the door.

"Tony, we've been here almost a week and haven't even seen you," he said.

Tony shrugged. "Busy. Science stuff. You know how it is. Gotta get back to it," he said, motioning to the door.

"Have you even slept anytime recently, Tony?" he asked, noting the pallor of his face and the deep circles under his eyes.

Tony shrugged, tucking the coffee under his arm. "Yeah, you know, I just have been working on stuff and get absorbed in it you know."

Steve frowned. "How long since you've slept, Tony?" he asked, his voice sounding more stern.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Totally don't need the third degree, _dad_. Now, I'm going back to the shop," he said, moving to walk by him but Steve noted when he brushed against him the flinch that went through him. He turned and watched him go, frowning. That wasn't a symptom he was familiar with… His fellows that had suffered from Shell shock, battle fatigue, PTSD, whatever you wanted to call it, had been anxious, had nightmares, but he'd never seen them react like that to someone.

Steve stepped out and looked at Clint and Natasha. "What is going on with him?" he said, brows furrowing. "I know Pepper said she thought he had post-traumatic, but…"

"The symptoms don't quite fit," Natasha said, finishing the sentence. She too, had seen people with the conditions. However, what she saw just then was symptomatic of a completely different type of trauma than what she knew that Tony had endured. She'd seen such things before, many times. She didn't expect to see them in Tony. She looked at both of them.

"What happened to him after the Invasion?" she asked. "He wasn't like this before, and I don't see the portal he almost died in causing this type of reaction. Anxiety, yes, but this…this is more…"

Clint nodded. "Yeah, I know," he said, locking eyes with her.

Natasha stood up and headed toward the elevator quickly. Clint looked after her. "I don't think he'll tell you," he said.

"I'm going to try," she said as she turned and pushed the button in the elevator.

The door opened and she saw Tony sitting in the middle of the floor surrounded by what appeared to be an Iron Man suit but exploded all over the place. She opened the door.

"Dammit, Dum-E!" he chided the yellow one armed bot. "I told you _not_ to hit the button. You know that's the one that blows the suit apart! I've already put the Mark 35 together four times because of you!"

The robot beeped and Natasha shook her head. Mark 35? How many Iron Man suits had he built over the last year? He'd been in the mark five when they were fighting the alien invasion, she thought. Or was it six?

"Tony?" she asked. As she expected, he turned and looked at her without a flinch or start.

"What's up, spider?" he asked, snapping the pieces of what looked like the leg together.

"Just checking up on you, you seemed in a hurry to get back down here," she said, kneeling beside him and looking over the suit.

He grinned lopsidedly at her. "Yeah, I knew this stupid bot," he said, and the bot chirped sadly. "I knew he'd mess this up for the millionth time. I have to finish it before I lose the train of thought I have for it, you know," he said picking up another piece and pushing the fittings together.

"What exactly are you doing?" she asked.

"It's a suit that is really light weight that is like the briefcase suit. It's supposed to be faster in flight, but I made it breakaway since it won't be as sturdy as my other suits," he said, holding up a wafer thin piece of metal. "I mean, it will hold up better than your standard airliner hull, but compared to some of the others I've done, it isn't that well made."

She nodded. "Any chance you'll tell me what's really going on with you, Tony?" she asked.

He froze for a second, and anyone else wouldn't have noticed. "Dunno whatcha talking about, spider. If you want any new toys, just shoot me a message on my phone. I'm already working on some new arrows for bird brain."

She nodded, patting him on the back and noting the lack of reaction as she stood up. "Okay, Tony. If you want to talk, you know, you can come talk to me."

He waved her off and nodded, immersing himself once more in his work. She knew by the set of his back that she wouldn't get anything else from him. She nodded, more to herself than anything else and headed back up and into the common living room where Bruce had come out and joined Clint and Steve after coming down for a cup of tea. He was sitting on the sofa beside Clint.

"Find out anything?" Bruce asked, as she came in, her face set in a deep scowl.

She shook her head. "Not really. He doesn't react to me like he did to Steve and Clint earlier. Didn't even startle him when I walked up behind him. I don't know if it was because he's comfortable in his shop or because I'm a woman…" she said, flopping down into the chair wither her arms crossed.

Bruce shook his head. "You should know trying to analyze Tony Stark's behavior is going to get you nowhere fast, Natasha. No one knows why he crawled into a bottle to start with, and no one understands why he keeps going back to it. He's an eccentric billionaire. He does weird stuff. Who knows what's going on in his head?"

Steve looked at them and sighed. "What do we know?" he asked. "I mean, I know next to nothing about him, to be honest."

"Other than his genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist shtick, neither do I," Clint said with a shrug.

Natasha sighed. "Well I know a little bit from what Pepper told me. I know that he graduated MIT at seventeen summa cum laude, and rumor was half the time he was drunk or high and still managed nearly perfect grades. His parents and Jarvis were killed when right after that…"

"Wait, Jarvis?" Steve said. "Isn't that the AI?"

She nodded. "That's who he named it after, his butler, the man that pretty much raised him since Howard was off searching for you in the arctic most the time when he was young," she said with a shrug. Steve frowned and nodded. "Let's see, his god father Obadiah Stane took over and helped him with the company after he took over at twenty one."

Bruce looked up. "Stane, isn't that the one that tried to kill him a few years ago?"

Steve arched his brow. "His godfather tried to kill him?"

Natasha nodded. "He was in Afghanistan demonstrating the Jericho missile for the US troops when his caravan was attacked and he was kidnapped. He had a missile blow up in his face, shrapnel embedded in his chest, and I don't know all the details, just that he busted out with his first Iron Man suit that he made in a desert cave and had that thing, the arc reactor, in his chest. He was beat the hell up when he came back, and that's when he announced Stark Industries was dropping weapons manufacture. Before that, he was known as the Merchant of Death, just as Howard was before him, because they both sold weapons world-wide. It took Tony seeing his weapons used against us to realize this." She ran a hand through her hair. "Unfortunately, when he came back, it turned out Stane was the one that ordered the hit on him. The Ten Rings, though, saw opportunity and kept him alive to make missiles. I know they tortured him to get him to work for them, and Pepper said he never did work on it for them, he made the Mark 1 suit instead."

Steve shook his head. "That's horrible."

"It gets worse," she said quietly, Steve jerking his head up to look at her wide eyed. "Stane made his own suit, but he couldn't do what Tony did in that cave, he couldn't make the miniature arc reactor. So he decided to steal Tony's, knowing it would kill him within minutes. See, the thing keeps the shrapnel that's lodged in his heart from going all the way through it. His R&D is working on the necessary technology to actually do the surgery without him dying, but it hasn't gotten there quite yet. So taking out the arc is a huge death sentence. I know you knew that, but I also know you didn't know exactly why or what it was put there for. Tony was never military, Steve, and he went through worse a few months than what a lot of our military goes through in a decade."

Steve nodded. "Wow, I didn't know all of that…"

Bruce looked up. "They cut his chest open in the middle of a cave and did what exactly? I've looked at Tony's files, but they're blank."

She shook her head. "They used a car battery to power an electro magnet to keep him alive. The arc reactor replaced the battery. I saw the footage of when they had him kidnapped. He looked like hell." She grinned at him. "He has a habit of wiping his files from the SHIELD databases. We're not even sure if what we have is true anymore. No one can figure out how he gets in and out."

The discussion was left there, and the group went about their lives. There were a couple Iron Man call outs, and Tony went out, but always ditched them as soon as he could get away. He worked on different gadgets and inventions for the group and they kept asking for more, and he'd just add them to the list and work through them diligently. Pepper would come by infrequently, often rebuked and sent away within minutes of coming by.

Then the world exploded one Saturday morning when Tony came out of the elevator almost at a dead gallop toward the kitchen with Pepper on his heels. Steve and Clint were sitting at the kitchen table while Bruce and Natasha fixed breakfast for everyone. They tried to have breakfast together on the weekends if they could. Of course, Tony had never come. Everyone looked up as he stormed into the kitchen.

"No, I'm not going, they can kiss my rich ass," he said, waving at her with one of the Iron Man gloves on his left hand. His right was wearing a safety glove, and he had the welding goggles hanging around his neck. Wires and things were sticking out of the half done glove.

"Tony, we can't get out of this one. If you don't show, the stock will tank. We can't afford it. You haven't been on a public appearance in months. People are doubting that you're even alive, and the majority think you're in rehab or a psych hospital!" she said, keeping pace with him but noticeably avoiding the left arm. The repulsor was probably active, knowing Tony.

He turned and ripped the black glove off his right and yanked the metal one off his left and threw them both at the counter. "No!" he said, putting up both hands and shaking his head. "I told you, I'm not interested in going to a fucking event! You go, you do the CEO stuff I'm paying you to do. I'll…give you a bonus, buy you a house, don't care, just take care of it."

Pepper sighed. "Tony, please. The company is going to fall apart. You won't go to board meetings, and the board is already teetering on their loyalty. You rarely leave the tower without the suit on. There's debate that its even you in the suit anymore. I'm afraid we're going to end up at the receiving end of a hostile takeover, Tony! If you lose the company, you lose everything. No more toys, no more suits, no more fancy playthings for the Avengers and Fury. You try and get Fury to fund something like those stupid gold plated arrows you made last week."

Tony turned his back to her. "They weren't gold plated, they use gold as a…you know what, it doesn't matter, I'll go, you're right," he said finally with a sigh.

"You can't ignore your duties…oh…" she said, suddenly realizing he'd agreed finally. "It starts at seven tonight. Black tie, please, and if you want, you can bring the others along. I'm sure you have suits for them too, and I know Natasha has fancy dresses. I'll be here to pick you and whoever else is going at six. Be ready Tony," she said, turning and clicking out in her heels.

Tony leaned over the counter and took several steadying breaths before he turned around and looked at the others. He was visibly shaking, but no one commented. He swallowed. "Yeah, if you want to go, there are suits in your closets," he said, and pushed off the counter and grabbed his gloves and went back to the shop.

Clint and Steve exchanged a look and then glanced into the kitchen to find both Natasha and Bruce staring back with the same look. They would all be going. Tony had asked, in his own way, and they weren't going to deny him this right now. Whatever was wrong, being in public was a problem for him now, for whatever reason

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

At exactly six, Tony stepped out of the elevator in his suit and looked very much like Tony Stark. The only issue was his eyes were wider than normal, and the fake smile didn't come close to reaching them. The others came out about the same time. Natasha was wearing a long black dress and had pulled her hair down around her face and worn a pair of silver rimmed glasses. Clint, Steve and Bruce were all similarly dressed in nice black suits like the one Tony was wearing. They had obviously all been tailored for each of them. Pepper came up a few moments later to retrieve them all.

Tony was silent as he slid into the back seat of the limo with the others. Pepper sat beside him and put a hand on his leg.

"Tony, you'll be accepting an award from the mayor's office," she said. "That's the reason you have to be here, you don't need to make a speech, just go take it and say thank you," she said as they took off.

The look of absolute horror that passed over Tony's face was apparent even to Steve before the mask of indifference replaced it quickly. "What?"

"It's an annual award for philanthropy in action. Since you practically rebuilt New York three years ago on your own money, they're giving it to you. I'm sorry, but I knew you wouldn't come if I told you that…" she said.

Tony had paled considerably but nodded. "I guess that's why it's so important. If I can't turn up for an award like that they'll think I really am dead or something…"

Natasha exchanged a look with the others at the reaction. He slumped in his seat and clenched his hands together. Natasha had an idea so she moved to sit on the other side of him and took one of his hands.

"Hey, if you're worried, you can pretend I'm your date for the night. I can fend off any advances by gold digging women," she said with a smile.

A strange look seemed to come over him for a moment and he nodded. "Yeah, sure, you're a good actress," he said, not really looking at her directly. "It might help keep the majority of annoying people away if I have a deadly assassin on my arm, even if they don't know you're a deadly assassin."

Natasha noted the tremble in his hand as he looked around. "I hope that they have an open bar…I think I'll need it."

Pepper cringed. "Um, another thing I forgot, Tony, the event is dry…"

Tony sighed. "Things can't get much better," he muttered. "I'm guessing you took my stash out of the limo?" he said, looking at her sadly. She gave him a strained smile. "Thought so. This is going to be a long night," he muttered, and Natasha wasn't sure if he even realized he did it but his hand tightened around hers where she'd left it. She frowned a bit but they had arrived.

Lavish wasn't the word for it, they all thought as they got out onto a red carpet. There were flashes and reporters yelling questions and people screaming at Tony. Steve got a few cries of various endearments as well, as everyone recognized the super soldier. Bruce tried to blend in where no one could see him, and Clint kept his eyes open for anything suspicious. Natasha stayed on Tony's right side, clasping his arm tightly, and Pepper walked on his left, keeping him between them. From the outside, he looked fine and like he should. They stopped so Tony could appease the media.

"Tony! You've been out of the public eye for a while, have you been in rehab?" one of the microphone wielding reporters yelled.

"I hate to disappoint the rumor mill, but no, unless you think I need rehab for working too much. I've actually been working on several projects for SHIELD and the government, as well as for Stark Research and Development. I think you'll be pleased when these projects are released," he said with a wink at him.

"Tony, Tony, who is your date tonight?" yelled someone else.

Natasha smiled, putting on an Australian accent. "Ramona Styles," she said with a smile. "Visiting from Sydney."

Tony smiled at her gratefully. "Thanks, I might be back, if not, take lots of pictures, I will be buried in work again. The world needs my genius, after all, so I can't spend all my time partying." He waved at them and they headed into the hall.

Things seemed to be going well. Tony stuck to Natasha's side like glue, and everyone, including Pepper noted his reluctance to leave her even for a moment. The first part of the evening was a formal dinner with a few speeches by various dignitaries for the city. The presentation went off without a hitch, as he accepted the award and thanked everyone before returning to his seat. Natasha and Clint, though, didn't miss the pause and look of...something…that crossed his face as he looked out into the audience. After the philanthropist's award, there were several others presented for various things, and Tony seemed to be acting relatively normal.

His team noted one difference that others wouldn't have noted. He didn't shake hands, and he didn't let anyone into his personal space, making sure to step back if anyone did get that close to him. He didn't take drinks or anything from the passing waiters as they walked around. Then the thing that set the team on alert happened.

Many had come up to congratulate Tony on the aware among other things. He tended to avoid anyone touching him rather smoothly. A man came up behind him in a pinstriped suit, though and dropped both hands on Tony's shoulders suddenly. Natasha turned and glared at the man, who looked to be in his early forties with a mop of bright shaggy platinum blond hair and blue eyes. Tony's body went rigid as soon as his hands touched him. Then he leaned over and spoke close to Tony's ear.

"Hey Tony boy, didn't expect you to come out," he said in a deep voice.

Natasha swore if she had been a lesser woman, Tony would have broken her hand. He'd been clinging to her all night as people came and went. But this was different. She could feel his pulse skyrocket through his skin and she knew something was very wrong. He turned his head and didn't even try to smile.

"Jason," he said. "Couldn't avoid it…"

Steve could tell something was wrong. Tony's eyes had changed and he could see sweat beading on his lip already. It was unlike when he'd cornered him accidently in the kitchen that night. The man stood up, not removing his hands and looked around.

"Good to meet you, name's Jason Contrail. Tony and I went to MIT together. My father is the deputy Mayor, so I have to attend all these events. Run into Tony quite often, until he decided that his work took priority over his social obligations, right Tony?" he said and Tony looked like a trapped animal. Steve's brow wrinkled at the way Jason's fingers dug into Tony's shoulders. There was more to this than the other man said.

Tony cleared his throat. "Um, yeah, Jason, I'm sure you know Steve Rogers, and Bruce Banner, and my date is Ms. Styles, and of course Pepper…and Clint Barton…" he said tightly.

Jason turned and smiled at Natasha. "Ms. Styles, yes, from Sydney, yes?"

Natasha's eyes narrowed. "Yes, my father owns a small company in Sydney, and we were looking to work with Mr. Stark on a few things. He was kind enough to invite me to the event tonight. Of course, I could not say no," she said with a perfect Sydney accent. She knew when she was being tested.

He nodded, apparently accepting what she said. "Ah, well watch out for Tony boy, here, he has a tendency to love 'em and leave 'em, right, Tony?" he said and Tony flinched.

"Those days are over, I've got more to do with my life than wasting my time on one night stands," Tony said as someone else walked up behind him.

"Mr. Stark?" a younger man said from behind.

Jason smiled and leaned over and spoke into Tony's ear again, but loud enough the others could hear him. "You're busy. We'll meet up later, Tony boy. Have some catching up to do, you know," he said and left.

Natasha didn't miss the fact that Tony's grip relaxed completely as soon as his hands left his shoulders and he left. It was like every muscle in his body had been wound tight and they all let go at once. He panted for breath a couple times and collected himself slowly before he looked at the young kid that came up. He was a teenager and wanted Tony to sign something for him. Tony grinned, releasing Natasha's hand completely as he offered him a paper.

"Put it there, kid," Tony said with a soft grin.

The teen put down the paper and Tony signed it quickly and handed it back. He grabbed his water goblet as the boy left and drained it completely before he stood. "I'm going to get some air, be back shortly," he said and headed to the where the stairs led up to an area with a balcony on the second floor.

As soon as he was far enough away, both Bruce and Steve got up and followed. Steve had a very bad feeling about what just happened, and he needed to find out if it was founded on reality or not. Bruce knew something was wrong but he didn't know what exactly it was as he followed Steve. When they got to the top of the stairs they heard Tony's voice from the balcony so both of them stopped to see if they could hear what was going on. The glass doors were shut but someone had left one of the windows cracked, and they could hear very clearly what was being said.

Tony needed air. He didn't have any other way to explain it, he needed air right that moment and the only place he knew that was somewhat private was going to be the second floor balcony. He couldn't go out the front because it was still packed with reporters and photographers. At least the balcony would have no one snapping pictures as he fell apart. He knew the moment he closed the doors he was going to have a panic attack. Damn him, he thought to himself. Months had passed, and he still couldn't get past it.

He was leaning on the railing, taking deep breaths and trying to slow his heart rate down to something close to normal and hadn't heard the door open and close. He nearly screamed when he felt hands grab him around the waist. He stiffened and looked behind him to see that Jason, as he feared, was standing behind him.

"Tony boy, why so wound up tonight?" he said softly, hands stroking his hips in a deceptively gentle manner. "You jumped out of your skin when I went to talk to you with your latest fucktoy. Pretty thing, love a red haired woman, myself."

Tony swallowed and shook his head. "Go away, Jason, I can't deal with this right now." No matter how hard he tried, he was shaking. He gripped the railing as hard as he could, hoping to stop it. His touch and smell brought it all back, though, and with vivid detail that only someone with a mind like Tony could give it. It was one of those things that sucked about being a genius with a photographic memory. Every detail, every smell, sight and sound stuck with him. It happened every time he smelled the cologne that Jason wore. That detail never changed, not since MIT. He smelled of Drakkor Noir, and Tony hated the smell.

"Tony, Tony, you're such a little tease," Jason said, leaning over him and putting his hands over Tony's. "I saw you look at me when you were up there on the stage."

Jason stood nearly six foot four, and Tony hadn't worn his lifts, his five foot nine frame overshadowed completely by him. Tony gritted his teeth and swallowed nervously. Surely he wouldn't…not here….

That thought was shattered when Jason ground his hips hard into Tony's backside and Tony gasped and shook his head. "Get off, Jason," he said with far less strength than he wanted. It was quite obvious that Jason would.

"But Tony boy, we had such fun last time," he said, putting his chin on Tony's shoulder and biting at his ear. "You screamed a lot, more than the first time," he said softly.

"The first time I was seventeen and high as a kite," Tony muttered. "And I told you no that time too," he said shakily.

"Didn't stop me then, won't stop me now," Jason said, pressing into the shorter man harder, pinning him to the balcony painfully. "Don't pretend you don't like it, Tony. As many women as you've been with, you enjoy it, the release, the…"

"Don't…" Tony said, shaking his head and trying to pull away. "Let me go, the others will be looking for me, I can't…"

"You always say you can't, Tony boy," Jason said, letting go of his hands and wrapping his arms around his chest, sliding them along him under the suit jacket. "And you know I can. I told you then, and I told you the last time we met, you can't get away, Tony Stark. I own you in this way. You are mine in a way no one else can have you, and I'll take what's mine when I want."

"Jason," Tony said, really shaking now. "I don't want this, I never have," he said tightly. "Please, just…stop this."

"But you never do anything about it afterward, do you?" Jason said, sliding one hand down into the front of Tony's pants. "You scream and cry and you don't want it, but when all is said and done, what do you do about it? Nothing. You go home and work on your silly little bots and you try to forget it happened, don't you? Or do you dream about me? Maybe when you're alone in the shower you feel my hands, huh? But you can't forget me after the last time, can you? How long before your ribs healed? I was a little rough on you, but you just were so damn stubborn. I promise not to do that again, Tony boy," he practically purred into his ear.

"No, no," Tony said, trying to squirm away from him. "G-get off…"

"You've got that pretty suit and could come kill me anytime, but you don't. You could've gone to the cops, Tony. I left enough evidence behind, god you were a mess when I was done with you. I'm actually surprised you didn't end up in the hospital. I was surprised you could leave on your own, and a little disappointed, I'd hoped I'd have to take you home for the weekend with me, maybe this time. Let me guess, embarrassed? You're fine with being a playboy as long as it's you doing the fucking, but when it's the other way around you're embarrassed and don't want anyone to know the secret. You enjoy it, that's it, right? And you want this, me finding you at these events and taking you and fucking you senseless while everyone else waits in their suits and dresses, never knowing what's going on under their noses…" Jason said, tightening his grip.

Tony was trapped. He wasn't a trained assassin; he didn't know any fancy moves to get him out of this, just like the last time. His suit wasn't with him, and there was no one that would bother trying to help him. Pepper would wonder where he went, but she wouldn't come up here, and even if she did, the door was locked from the outside. Maybe the rest of the team would look for him, but Pepper would think he took off and went home. He couldn't reach his phone without Jason seeing, but he didn't want this to happen.

He threw his head back and cracked Jason's head hard with his own. It sent his own ears ringing but Jason stumbled back. Tony scrambled to get his phone out and get to Jarvis to tell him to get the others. He didn't have a chance though because Jason grabbed his wrist and twisted it, forcing him to drop the phone and gasp in pain as he felt the bones snap.

Before he could react again, he was slammed up against the building hard, his already throbbing head bouncing off the bricks and sending stars and black patches shooting across his vision. His knees tried to buckle and when the world swam back he realized that Jason was trying to get his pants undone. Tony slapped at his hands and pushed backward on him. Jason looked up and growled at him before grabbing him by the jacket and turning him and slamming him into the building again and yanking the jacket down around his arms, pinning them behind him. He could feel warm wetness dripping out of his hair.

"We're going to do this again?" he asked, pressing him into the wall and holding his cheek against the bricks.

Time seemed to freeze for Tony because he pinned to the left side of the double doors leading out onto the patio, his right side of his face grinding painfully into the bricks and he could already taste blood running down the back of his throat. It was strange because he knew he'd heard the lock click, but the door opened and things blurred out for a moment, and he found himself struggling to get his hands free because he didn't know what was happening, and his brain wasn't really working on all cylinders. He heard voices, and realized he was on the ground and someone was pulling his jacket off his hands and he panicked and scrambled backward away from them into the corner where the balcony met the building. Dammit, he thought as he buried his head in his hands. He had been facing the wrong way and now he was trapped again. He couldn't think right, and the world was blurring in and out still.

"Tony!" a familiar voice cut through the fuzz in his brain. "Tony, look at me!" he heard and looked up into Bruce's eyes. "Come on, there we go, Tony, you know me? How many fingers, Tony?" he said, holding up two, but Tony's vision was doubling.

"Four…" he said, eyes crossing a bit as he blinked.

"Okay, it's okay, Tony," Bruce said, cupping his cheek and trying to keep his eyes on him. "Look at me, Tony," he said when Tony tried to turn his attention onto the motion to the side. "Don't look over there," he said again. "Look at me."

Tony had no idea why he was supposed to look at Bruce but his ears were ringing. Other than Bruce's voice he couldn't pin down what else was happening other than there was noise and talking, or yelling, or something. He jerked away when someone else kneeled beside him, his heart racing.

"Tony, it's Steve," came another familiar voice and Tony blinked and locked his eyes on Steve's blue ones. "You're fine now, okay?" he said, not moving toward him. There was noise and he heard motion and Pepper's voice but his fight to retain consciousness was quickly being lost. He teetered and fell into someone's arms, Steve, he thought, caught him, as the blackness finally won over the color. It was a war, but in the end, the color lost and he slipped into a sweet, dreamless sleep.


	2. Exposure

**Hush Now**

**Chapter Two**

_Exposure_

When Jason pinned Tony to the railing, Steve wanted to bust the door open but Bruce stopped him, grabbing his arm tighter than the scrawny scientist should have. When Steve turned, his eyes were glowing green and he was obviously trying to hold the hulk back.

"No, if you go out there, we put Tony in danger. That's over a ten foot drop, he could get hurt, or worse," he said quietly. "We can't take that chance."

Steve ground his teeth as Jason continued to taunt him and he wondered if Tony went over the railing if he could manage to get to him before he hit the ground. There was a motion behind him and he looked to see Natasha standing behind them. "Bruce is right, Steve, and Clint can't get a drop on him from across the street because of the position he's got Tony in," she said softly, her right hand pressed against the com in her ear. "He's loaded with a tranq arrow, but he doesn't want to hit Tony in case he lets him fall."

Steve and Tony both looked shocked when Tony slammed his head backward into him, and noted he was definitely dazed as he started to grab his phone. Steve was at the door when Tony dropped the phone while Bruce tried to control himself. Natasha pushed Steve back and popped the lock with one move and Steve was out the door in a second with her and Bruce on her heels. Steve grabbed Jason by the back of his suit jacket, yanking him away with an almost inhuman sound, shocking him into yelping. Tony teetered against the wall before sliding down to his knees. Natasha dropped beside him as he struggled to get his hands out of the jacket, and helped him. When he was free he took off away from her and hit the balcony wall, curling in on himself. Bruce moved past her and knelt in front of him and started talking to him.

Steve, meanwhile, was extremely pleased that Jason decided that he thought he could take on Captain America in a fist fight. Apparently, Jason thought that all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the super soldier was all for nothing. Steve was proving him wrong, as he knocked him back into the building with a solid punch right before an arrow zipped through the air right in front of Steve's nose and buried itself in Jason's thigh. Jason looked down, shocked at the arrow then his eyes rolled up into his head and he slumped down into unconsciousness.

Steve turned and went back to where Tony was sitting, staring with a glassy look at Bruce. Natasha stood behind him and Pepper came running out the door with someone in a suit, obviously a SHIELD man, but no one was really paying attention to who it was.

When Steve spoke to him, Tony looked at him then passed out cold, and Steve caught him before he fell into the ground again. He picked him up and went into the second floor and found a couch where he laid him down so Bruce could look him over in earnest. It was then they realized who was with Pepper.

"Agent Coulson?" Steve said, staring at him with wide eyes as Bruce paused to look up.

Phil Coulson, who should have been very much dead, stood beside Pepper, looking as concerned as the rest of them. "Yes, long story," he said. "Rumors of my death were overstated," he said. "For now, let's get these two onto the Helicarrier, I think Fury wants to have a chat with Mr. Contrail."

Bruce nodded. "He's good to transport, though I'd rather him have a backboard," he said looking up just as a helicopter hovered outside the balcony.

Phil smiled. "Arranged," he said, walking out as Jason Contrail was lifted into the waiting helicopter. It left and was replaced by the second, which let down a crew with a backboard that took Tony and Bruce up and left. Phil looked at the others.

"Well, let's go, shall we?" he said, heading down the stairs followed by Pepper, Steve, Natasha and Clint as they exited through the media circus that was outside and loaded into the waiting SHIELD helicopter that had landed in the middle of the road.

Once everyone was on board, Fury called everyone into the meeting room as soon as Bruce was satisfied with Tony's condition. He looked around.

"First, I'm sure you noticed, Phil's not dead," he said looking around. "Before you start asking, I can't go into it right now. Second, can someone please tell me why the hell I got a frantic call from Pepper Potts telling me to get to your location immediately? And why I have the deputy mayor's son in my med bay with a broken jaw and Tony is in my other med bay with a severe concussion and a broken nose? Please, tell me Tony did not get into a fight with the deputy mayor's son."

Steve looked up. "I'm afraid that I'm the reason Jason Contrail's jaw is broken. He's lucky he isn't in a full body cast."

Fury blinked in surprise at Steve. "What?"

Bruce looked away. "I don't think I would have been so kind to him, Steve. I'm glad you got to him first. The Other Guy would have killed him outright and I would have let him do so with no remorse."

Now Fury turned to Bruce, just as surprised by his statement. "Can somebody please tell me why the two of this team that I trust to keep a level head are sitting here saying these things?"

Bruce and Steve both looked away from him and crossed their arms. Neither trusted themselves to say anything without exploding. Natasha looked up from where she'd been staring at her hands. "I'll explain, or rather, JARVIS will," he said, sliding a tablet over to Fury.

Fury picked it up with a frown, "What are you saying? What am I looking at?"

Natasha looked over at Clint and back to Fury. "When Pepper came to the Tower earlier and told Tony about the event, he flipped out on her. He hasn't left the tower for any reason in the last few months. Pepper thought it was PTSD from the events in Afghanistan and the invasion. Tony came closer than any of us to dying. That was part of the reason she wanted to move us to the tower, and Tony agreed to it but since we've been there he hasn't even come around. He's jumpy, won't talk to anyone, and doesn't sleep. I, with a little help from Pepper, managed a backdoor into JARVIS that Tony didn't notice. You know Tony, and you know if he didn't notice there's something wrong with Tony, Director."

Fury nodded. "Tony not realizing his precious AI had been hacked into? Yeah, that's wrong."

"I set up surveillance on him, without him knowing. I based it around his arc reactor, using it as a power signature that could be tracked remotely. Using that I could triangulate any cameras in the city on him no matter where he went. Well, rather, Jarvis could. In the tower of course, I could get into the closed circuit system, but it didn't give much information. He has nightmares when he does sleep and drinks a lot to even fall asleep. I couldn't trace it to an exact date because he pretty much wipes JARVIS's files every so often. Anyway, this morning, when he flipped out, Clint and I decided that it would be a good time to figure out what was going on if we could. We knew there was some reason he didn't want to go out in public. I thought there might be something, or someone, he was avoiding," she said, rubbing a hand across her face.

"I posed as his date, and I swear, Director, he held onto me the entire night like I was the most important thing to him. I have _never_ seen him act that way. On the surface he was fine, but he nearly broke my hand when Jason Contrail came up behind him," she said, rubbing at her hand.

Fury frowned deeply. "Why would Tony react that way to Contrail?"

She nodded. "He made a little small talk, teased Tony, and told me to watch out for him since he was a 'love 'em and leave 'em' type, and then seemed to be testing my cover, a rich businessman's daughter from Sydney. Lucky for me, I don't take a cover lightly, and gave him the accent he was looking for. I thought it was suspicious, and when he left Tony relaxed like someone had just sapped all the tension out of him. He drank his water and said he had to get some air. Bruce and Steve took off after he hit the stairs, and me and Clint went ahead with our plan."

Steve and Bruce looked up. "You guys had a plan?"

Clint smirked. "Hell yes," he said, holding up an arrow with a flared base to the tip of it. "Tony made these for me. They're voice recording arrows. The tip is filled with a thick putty like glue that keeps it in place once it hits something. The impact, because of the putty, is almost silent. As soon as Tony took off I went outside, waiting for Natasha to tell me where he was headed. When she said he'd headed to the second floor, we knew that there was only one place he could go to for 'air' and that was the balcony. So I grabbed my bow from where I'd stowed it earlier today, and used the grapple pull to get up on that building across from the balcony. As soon as I was there, I flipped on my scope and saw that Tony was on the balcony and I shot the arrow just as that Contrail dude came out the door. It hit just as the dude walked up behind him and Tony didn't notice."

Natasha nodded at Fury. "I had JARVIS combine the audio from Clint's arrow with the camera across the street, and that's the file on the tablet. We could tell you all day what happened, sir, but you're not going to believe it."

Fury frowned and watched the grainy black and white footage in silence. More than what he saw, what he heard concerned him more. He put down the tablet and stood up, leaving without another word, leaving the team to stare after him. Fury made his way down to the locked med bay where a SHIELD agent stood outside. He understood now why Steve told him that he wasn't to allow any of the Avengers into the room. He nodded and entered the room where the blond haired man sat in a hospital bed, his face bandaged and sitting fiddling with his phone.

"Why can't I get a signal in this place?" he said through clenched teeth, a look on his face that made Fury certain that he thought he had the upper hand.

"The Helicarrier blocks all mobile signals unless you have one of Stark's phones that he's programed to bypass it," he answered, coming in. "How are you feeling? I understand you got into an argument with Steve Rogers."

"Argument? I'm going to press charges for assault!" he said, motioning to his face. "Then I'm going to sue SHIELD for allowing a madman to run rampant on the city."

Fury nodded. "I see. So you didn't provoke him?" Fury asked, crossing his arms and giving the man a hard one eyed stare.

Contrail rolled his eyes. "Of course not, who would provoke Captain America? The man could break a man in half, or his jaw," he said, glaring at Fury.

"Why would Captain America attack you?" Fury asked.

"Ask him, I was having a discussion of a business nature with Tony when he burst out onto the balcony and punched me," he said, not taking his eyes off Fury.

Fury nodded. "You are a great liar. Definitely your father's son."

Contrail's eyes widened. "What did you say?"

Fury nodded. "I said you were a liar. I just wanted to see if you'd admit to what you'd done, I can see that you aren't willing to even own up to your own twisted shit. Don't worry, the recording and video feed from the camera across from the balcony is evidence enough to make sure Steve isn't given a second trouble by anyone."

"What? What are you talking about?" he demanded, wincing as he tried opening his mouth.

"See, you made a mistake. You messed with someone who isn't alone anymore. You don't know Tony, and you don't know my team. The Avengers became a family. And you decided to hurt one of them. The rest came out in force to find out what had happened. And thanks to your little tirade on the balcony, we know everything. I'll never understand villains that monologue. Set yourself up to lose, you know, if you just kept your fucking mouth shut, you might get away with shit," Fury said, watching Contrail's face turn into a mask of rage. "You thought Tony was alone. You thought nobody gave a shit about him. And you were wrong."

He turned and walked out, slamming the door behind him and taking a long breath. He nodded to the guard and headed back to the conference room where the Avengers had remained. He sat back down. "When did he and Tony encounter each other before tonight? He said the last time and before that he said when he was sixteen. That was the year before he graduated MIT."

"We're not sure," Clint said. "Wait, he said something about his ribs." Clint picked up his tablet, bringing up JARVIS's interface. "JARVIS, when did Tony have broken ribs last?"

"Sir had two broken ribs five months and two weeks ago when he returned from a charity event, though he refused my advice to visit medical about it. He insisted on taking care of it himself," JARVIS answered from the small speaker in the device.

"What charity event was that?" Natasha asked.

"Sir attended the National Heart Association Banquet and Awards Ceremony that evening. He was presenting an award to Jason Contrail for making a donation of one hundred thousand dollars to the local chapter of the organization," he said smoothly. "Sir always attended Heart Association functions and set aside a division of Research and Development at Stark Industries for Heart research. He has missed four such functions since then."

"That's when it happened," Natasha said, frowning. "JARVIS, is there any security footage on file from the center that award was held in?"

JARVIS paused a moment. "The event's security footage has been archived in Contrail Security's archives."

Natasha looked across the table. "Contrail Security. He was allowed to run security at an event honoring himself?" she asked.

Jason Contrail, while the son of the Deputy Mayor Dillon Contrail, ran the family company now that his father was in the political circuit. Contrail Security was an upstate that took New York by storm the months directly after the Invasion occurred. Before that point, the company was nearly unheard of. Then earlier in this year, Dillon became the Deputy Mayor, leaving the company to his son.

"JARVIS, can you get access to the files?" Fury said.

"The files are kept in a secured server," he answered.

Fury grinned. "JARVIS, I asked if you _can_ get access to those files, by any means necessary?"

"Of course, Director Fury. One moment please," he said and the room went silent for about fifteen minutes. "Apologies, Director Fury, the system was more uncooperative than I anticipated. The files are downloading to a secure server in the tower currently. Access granted to SHIELD Director Fury."

Fury smiled as the files popped up on the table's screen. "JARVIS, how illegal was what you did?"

"Director Fury, I was only following my directives," JARVIS answered. "I am a program, therefor I cannot do anything without directives."

"Of course, JARVIS," Fury muttered, shaking his head. No wonder random things kept disappearing from the file systems. In less than fifteen minutes, JARVIS alone had hacked through perhaps fifty layers of security and protocols to get the information, then apologized for the lateness of it. That didn't include what Tony could do with JARVIS as a tool.

Fury turned and cued the footage on the screen behind him. "JARVIS, sort and focus on following Tony throughout the cameras," he asked.

"Of course, Director Fury," he said and the black and white security footage shifted into a single panel instead of the ten feeds previously.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Security Camera Footage – Five Months Two weeks previous

Tony came in with someone on his arm, none of them recognized her, he waved and stopped and spoke, got kissed on the cheek several times, signed a few things, some of them body parts, and went into the event. He sat down at the presenter's table and chatted as the presentations went on and then when the presentation he was doing came up he stood up and spoke. The audio wasn't great, but when the presenters were speaking they could hear it.

"So, you know when you get a call to do a presentation for someone you haven't seen in a _long_ time? That happened to me the other day, when the lovely president of the association called me. How could I turn her down?" he said to loud applause. "So without further waiting, the award for notable giving goes to New York's own Jason Contrail!" Tony handed him the award and shook his hand, leaning over to speak to him in his ear over the roar of the crowd. Jason said something in return and Tony's smile disappeared for a brief moment before it returned and he sat down, nearly missing his seat as Jason took the mic.

"Thanks so much Tony! Haven't seen him in a dog's age, as they say, we won't talk about how long ago I went to school with him. He was perhaps the single most amazing student at MIT when I went. Who starts classes with a fourteen year old kid that beats everyone in class on every test? I swear, we never caught a break, Tony always broke the curve for us." There was laughter. "In all seriousness, I'm honored by the award, and honored that you would bring a bona fide hero like Tony here to present it to me."

The team noticed that Tony was fiddling with the silverware and looking down and away. The tautness of his jawline was quite obvious even in the wide angle view this camera presented. Jason patted him on the shoulder and he visibly kept himself from jerking away. "Tony here was a lot of fun back at MIT, weren't you, Tony boy?" he said squeezing his shoulder in the same way that he'd done when he approached him that very night. However, even Tony couldn't hide the utter horror when he called him "Tony boy". He recovered quickly, but he was obviously shaking when he clapped as Jason stepped down behind him. It was subtle, but Jason ran his hand across Tony's shoulders as he moved past him. Tony's eyes closed until he was gone and then he resumed his socializing, but he wasn't quite as adept as usual.

Finally, he got up at one point, excusing himself it looked like, and the camera switched to one in a hallway and Tony was obviously walking quickly down it, hitting a pair of double doors at the end and going into a huge library. The camera switched again, this one situated right in the upper corner of the room by the doorway. Tony had stopped inside the doorway and was obviously trying to put himself in order. He was concentrating on his breathing it seemed and didn't see the door open and close behind him. The lock clicked louder though and Tony spun around.

"Jason," he said, turning to face him.

"Tony boy, how are you, babe?" Jason said, putting his hands on his hips and leaning against the door, almost out of view of the camera.

"Fine, just fine," he said, taking a step back. "Why'd you lock the door?"

"So no one would bother us. It's been ages," Jason said.

"I'd rather have it been ages more," Tony said, shifting to cross his arms. "I came here because I thought maybe you'd changed a little. Seems I was wrong. I have to go, Pepper…"

"Don't give me that bullshit, Tony. You aren't going anywhere," he said smoothly.

Tony visibly stiffened. "That's not going to work anymore Jason. I'm not some seventeen year old kid you've pumped full of fucking heroin anymore. This, this doesn't happen."

"Tony, Tony, I heard what you did. After you got out of MIT and away from me you went a little…lady crazy, I hear. How many women did you go through before you ended up pretending to have a fling with that little red head of yours?" Jason said, standing up off the wall and moving closer to him.

Tony shook his head. "Don't think so fucking high of yourself, my parents died that year. You had nothing to do with it."

"Ah, that's the excuse for the drunk debauchery?" he said with a grin, stepping closer. For every step closer he took, Tony stepped backward.

"That's none of your business. I fucked up, and I'm trying to fix it," he said, the back of his legs hitting the large desk at the edge of the room and stopping him. He dropped his hands and gripped the edge as he watched Jason close in.

"Aw, poor Tony boy. You know, you were the best. I never had a boy scream as much as you did," he said, moving inches from him and taking his left hand and brushing it gently over his face. Tony turned his head away and shook his head.

Tony went to move from where he was but Jason put a hand on his hip to stop him. "No, Tony, you're not going yet. I'm not done with you."

"I'm done with you," he said, shoving his hand off him and shoving him backward, moving away from him.

Jason reached out and grabbed him by the arm and yanked him backward into him, wrapping both arms around his waist and holding him still. Tony struggled against him, and tried to pry his hands off him.

"No, no," he said, and slid one hand under his shirt, gripping the release for the arc. Tony froze. "Yeah, I know about it. And I know that if I do this," he said and an audible click sounded and Tony gasped. "You can't do much about it, now can you?"

"Jason, no," he said, as he kept one hand on the arc and started pulling at Tony's tie with the other.

"Come on, Tony, I wanna see all of you. You were such a scrawny little brat back then, you weren't much to look at," he said smirking. Tony shook his head and gasped again as they could see the arc being pulled upward under his shirt. "Stop moving, or I'll just pull it all the way out. Wow, you know that sounds pretty erotic, doesn't it?" It was obvious the color had drained from Tony even in the black and white footage. "Pull this out, push it in again," he muttered, zipping the tie off Tony's neck and pulling his hands behind him and wrapping the tie around his forearms behind his back. He was still recovering from the arc being pulled out of his chest for a moment and didn't move as he did it.

"So I found out how to shut you up…" he muttered, spinning him around and trying to kiss him. Tony blinked and seemed to come out of his daze and his knee shot up into Jason's crotch with enough force to be audible. Clint, Bruce, Fury and Steve all flinched as the larger man dropped to his knees with a long drawn out groan.

Tony got away from the desk and headed toward the door, growling under his breath as he got closer and trying to pull his arms free. Tony was turned to try and get the lock with his hand still behind his back in time to see Jason standing up. He obviously knew he wasn't getting his arms out. The camera could only show the top of Tony's head, but this close to the mic, they heard the clicks as Tony tried to get the door unlocked and opened with a slew of muttered curses in several different languages. He was so concentrated on manipulating his hands in the odd position, he didn't realize Jason had recovered and there was a loud cracking sound followed by Tony's choked cry.

"You are still a little bitch, Tony," he said. "Look at that, made me hurt you."

Jason came back into view dragging Tony by the back of his jacket. Tony was not deterred it seemed, though he was in obvious pain. He kicked and tried to hook the furniture and break his grip, succeeding twice, but he wasn't able to get up fast enough to try the door again.

"Goddammit, I'm going to fucking kill you, Jason!" he gasped, his breath heavy and hard now as Jason threw him back to the ground by the desk they began at. "Going to fuckin…kill you…goddamned bastard!" he yelled at him. Steve nodded. He was obviously trying to get someone's attention by yelling since couldn't get free.

Jason kneeled in front of him and grabbed his chin. "Tony boy," he said and pressed his mouth to him and Tony tried to kick at him again but Jason held one hand over the arc and he stilled. When he pulled away, Tony had blood dripping down his face.

"I'm going to kill you," he said again, turning his face away.

"No, you aren't," Jason said, pulling his own tie off and wrapping it around Tony's mouth in a gag. "Hush now, Tony, no more of that yelling, someone might hear you and disturb us."

Tony glared at him and kept trying to kick him. He grabbed both his knees and shook his head at him. "Don't do that again, Tony. I swear, you won't make it out of here alive if you do. And who are they going to believe? Me, of course, when I tell them you attacked me and I defended myself."

Tony gave him a hard look and glanced at the security camera. Jason followed his gaze and smirked. "Tony boy, do you honestly think I'm that stupid. My company is running security. That footage is mine. And this, this gets copied and taken home for my own private use. And if you don't want anyone else seeing it, you're going to fucking do what you know I want."

The team could see Tony's willpower was quickly leaving him. It was something they'd all seen in one form or another. Trapped, without escape, there's no reason to fight what's going to happen. He tried to be quiet and tried to not give Jason what he wanted, but he wasn't having it. Fury fast forwarded through the worst of it, and returned to regular speed when Jason left the room. He'd untied him but he left him otherwise. The time stamp indicated it they had skipped over an hour of the video. The worst was Tony just gathering his things and dressing without a word and finally limping toward the door cradling his ribs. Then his demeanor changed and he stood up straight, closing his eyes, no doubt to adjust for the pain, and composed himself perfectly, leaving the room as though he were fine. He made his way quickly through the crowd, only once being run into and jumping away from them before he exited the building and handed the valet his number. The outdoor camera caught him getting in and speeding away, obviously at far too fast than safe.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

"I'd say we have enough evidence to lock him in a SHIELD facility for a long time. I see no reason to go through the regular police," Fury said, not turning back around yet. "Natasha, I leave the cover story for his disappearance to you. Clint, I want him off my carrier in the hour. I can't be sure I won't sleep walk and kill him."

Both got up and left quickly. "Steve, Bruce, stay with Tony. He's already been unstable since this incident happened. I don't want him to do anything to hurt himself. Also, I think it is advisable that we let Ms. Potts know what happened. She's in with Tony now. Replace her and send her in to speak with me."

Bruce and Steve both nodded and headed to the med bay where Tony was still unconscious. Steve knocked gently and Pepper called for them to enter.

"Pepper, Fury wants to talk to you about what happened," Steve said softly.

She nodded and got up. Steve sat down in the chair she'd vacated and Bruce sat on the edge of the bed by Tony's feet. He looked peaceful, except the horrid bruising across his nose and face and the deep scratches from the bricks. Steve and Bruce were reminded how incredibly human Tony was compared to them. Either of them could have gotten out of the situation easily. Even Natasha or Clint had the skills to get out of it. Tony wasn't any of them, though. Outside the suit he was human, and incredibly fragile, at that.

"JARVIS?" Bruce said quietly. "How is he?"

JARVIS piped in. "Sir is showing stable life signs. There is mild swelling in the brain; however it is not to the degree to be consequential. I will alarm you if the pressure increases from this point."

Bruce nodded. "Thank you, JARVIS."

Steve leaned forward and pushed Tony's hair away from his face and frowned a bit. He was in pain, he could tell, even in his sleep. Whether it was emotional of physical, Steve was unsure. He looked over at Bruce and saw a very similar expression of concern on his face. The expression was one that was more than simple concern for his team member. Steve sighed and leaned back in the chair and Bruce moved and sat in the other, plastic chair in the corner. Eventually, both fell asleep.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

The dream was real, very real. Of course, if it had been a dream, it wouldn't have been bad. The problem was it wasn't just a dream. It was a memory that had been etched into Tony's mind at seventeen.

"Tony, wait up!" came the voice behind him. "Sorry I missed your party last week," Jason said, a much younger and spry looking boy. "Turning the same age as the freshman this year, huh?"

Tony rolled his eyes at the older boy. "Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"So, since I didn't get to come to your party, how about I take you out for the night?" Jason said. "I got a free pass into the strip club for you. My brother's on the door and will let you in."

Tony grinned. "Guess that could be fun. Alright, but I don't want to get caught. My dad will kill me if he finds out I snuck into a strip club like that."

Jason winked. "Don't worry, it will be great. I can even get us in a private room and watch the real good stuff."

Later that night, Tony waited in anticipation for the night. He'd never been to see real live naked girls. His stomach was a flutter with the prospect of sneaking around and doing something he shouldn't be as well. He knew that he would be in tons of trouble if he got caught and the prospect was actually rather exciting. Jason pulled up and took off with Tony to the club. As he promised, he got in without a problem and back to a private viewing room where the girls danced and stripped behind the glass. Halfway through the first girl's show, Jason lit a joint and passed it to Tony after taking a hit. Tony blinked and looked at him. "What's that for…"

"Take a hit, Tony boy, don't be a pussy," Jason said.

Tony took it and sucked in a long inhale and coughed it back out with tears in his eyes. "Oh that burns," he said, rubbing his chest.

"Ah give it a minute, you'll feel really good," Jason said. By the end of the second girl's show, Tony was feeling really mellow and happy. He was amazed at how good he felt at that moment. Jason grinned. "Want to try something even better?" he asked Tony.

Tony grinned and nodded. "Sure, whatever that was feels great," he said and leaned back further in the large seat he was in. He was completely entranced by the dancing girl in the booth so he didn't move when Jason picked up his arm and it wasn't until he felt the pinch in his arm that he looked over to see him injecting something into his vein.

Tony jerked away, blood trickling down as the fluid leaked down from the tip of the syringe. Jason looked at him with a hurt expression. "Tony boy, you made me waste some," he said, frowning. "Have to punish a naughty boy for that," he said, grinning.

"What's that? What'd you do?" Tony said, staring at the blood dripping from the injection site. Then it hit him and his eyes fluttered.

"Just a little heroin. Makes you feel really good, doesn't it?" he said, pushing the button to close the shutters on the girls.

Tony couldn't think straight and his limbs felt like lead. "I don like it," he said softly as he realized that Jason was over him now, pulling his clothes off. "What…what you…"

"Tony boy, Tony boy, Jason's little Tony boy…" he said in a sing song voice. "You're going to be mine. From now on, no one can take this from me. My Tony boy, Jason's little Tony boy…" Jason continued, flipping Tony over on the chair and groping him. Tony's head was buzzing but when the pain and pressure shot through him, it cleared significantly and he screamed for the first time in his life, begging Jason to stop, to quit, he'd do anything if he'd just stop. He tried to fight him but he was so much smaller and Jason was so much stronger. He held his hands over his head and pinned to the back of the chair and used his free hand to keep him trapped in the chair between the arms. He couldn't get away from him. Jason was a football player, and at one point, had been Tony's defender against those that would tease and bully him. He sobbed and begged him, just don't, he couldn't take it anymore…

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Tony's thrashing woke both the room's other occupants. Both Steve and Bruce stood to see what was wrong. He was making whimpering sounds and panting, hands flailing at invisible assailants around him. Bruce grabbed his hands and held them but he stilled and muttered in his sleep. "Jason…don't…hurts…"

Steve took one of Tony's hands. "Tony, please, wake up, its Steve and Bruce, you're safe, you're not in danger, please, wake up," he said quietly.

It seemed though he was locked into whatever nightmarish hell he was in because his struggles increased against them, and Steve started to worry that even though he was asleep that they'd have to sedate him again. Finally his eyes flew open and he gasped and tried to get away from both Steve and Bruce.

"Tony, Tony, it's us," Bruce said, keeping Tony from scrambling away from them and hurting himself further. He could see he was disorientated.

"I don't want to go," he said, staring at Steve with vacant eyes. "Don't make me go," he said with a shudder. "I can't go…you'll hurt me again."

Steve put his hands on Tony's shoulders and shook him. "Tony look at me, its Steve, snap out of it."

Tony blinked and nodded slowly. "You?" he asked, frowning at him and turning to look at the other side. "And you…" he said. Steve saw quite clearly that he was still not quite with them yet. He sat down beside him on the bed, not letting go of him. Bruce mimicked the motion, sitting on the opposite side as he waited for it.

Of course it happened. He looked like a trapped animal and tried to pull away from both of them and dive away. Steve caught him pulling him back onto his lap as Bruce came around the bed, grabbing a sedative from the try. He was glad now he'd laid them out though he didn't want to use them. However, Tony was still panicking and looked like he was going to pass out any moment from hyperventilating as Bruce pushed the needle through his pants into the muscle of his thigh. He stilled and looked at Bruce as though he had committed some terrible betrayal. A few moments, though, and the valium worked its magic and he relaxed in Steve's grip, slumping back against his broad chest with a sleepy expression.

Bruce pulled his chair up in front of them and put a hand on Tony's knee. "Tony?" he asked.

Tony looked at him with bleary eyes. "Hey," he said softly. "I feel funny."

Steve smiled at Bruce over his shoulder. Tony laid his head back and realized he was on someone. He turned and tried to focus his eyes on Steve. "Hmm…" he muttered. "Your lap is softer than I thought I would be," he muttered, turning to get more comfortable on his lap.

Bruce grinned as a blush rose on Steve's cheeks, Tony's arms hooking around him and him wiggling on his lap to get as much contact between him and Steve's body. "M'cold," he said softly.

Bruce grabbed the blanket and put it over his shoulders and he covered himself up to his nose and looked over the blanket at him. Bruce had to contain a chuckle at the sight. Tony wasn't a small man, but compared to the super soldier he looked almost childlike curled in his lap. Steve wasn't sure what to do with his hands. If he put them around him, he'd end up cradling his butt in one of them. Bruce shook his head and pulled Steve's arms around him, clapping one arm around Tony's ass and the other over the top of his thighs.

"Hold him or he's going to fall off if he falls asleep like that Steve," he said softly. "He's been banged up enough today." Again a light pink dusted Steve's face and Bruce sighed.

Tony looked sleepily at Bruce again. "Head hurts…" he said, frowning. "My stomach feels funny, and I'm tired…" he said, trying to look around but the valium had taken full effect by now and he was definitely not completely with it.

"I know, Tony, I know, but I can't give you anything else, and I need you to try and stay awake as much as you can," he said gently, putting one of his hands on his back. "I gave you something to calm you down, you were having a panic attack when you woke up. It shouldn't put you to sleep, but it is going to make you a little sleepier than normal."

"Okay," he muttered trying to bury his face in the blanket and sleep.

Bruce pulled it off his face and he winced. "No, come on Tony, I know it's hard but you gotta stay awake for me. You got knocked in the heard really good, and I have to keep an eye on it."

"I don't wanna," he whined and Bruce nearly lost it again, standing up and turning away from him, stifling a chuckle. Then he blinked and turned back around, kneeling and lifting his head up.

"Tony…do you know who I am?" he said, realizing he hadn't said either of their names or called them by any of his millions of nicknames.

"Doctor?" he said, looking at him. Bruce's eyes widened and he looked at Steve who looked down, mildly concerned as well.

And do you know who is holding you?" Bruce asked, hoping that he knew Steve.

Tony grinned. "Someone nice and warm," he said. "I like him," he said, putting his head back down on Steve.

"Do you know who you are?" Bruce said, a bad feeling building in his stomach.

"You called me Tony, so I'm Tony," he said, yawning and blinking at him slowly. "I wanna go home, though," he said with a sigh. "I'm hungry too."

Bruce's brow knitted. "Tony, do you know where you are?"

He shook his head. "Nuh uh," he said.

Bruce chewed his lip for a second then checked Tony's eyes again, having his hands slapped away for his effort. He shook his head and looked at Steve.

"Either the shock, the trauma, or the head injury, or all three. I think he's got amnesia…" he said, standing up. "He's not acting normal at all, so it might even be more severe than normal, almost like his mind has completely regressed to a time before all this happened to him…"


	3. Regression

**Hush Now**

* * *

**Chapter Three**

_Regression_

* * *

Initially, it didn't seem like such a big deal. Tony had amnesia but they figured it would fade quickly. He had ended up with a severe concussion that had nearly required surgery, after all. They didn't realize that most devastating part of Tony's condition was the regression his mind had initiated. They didn't understand exactly how much of himself Tony had lost. After two weeks in SHIELD medical in strange state of going between awake and comatose for days at a time, he'd woken up finally for more than a few hours and been moved back to the tower so Bruce could personally monitor his medical condition. After a week of that, Bruce was trying to figure out what was happening.

Fury stared at Bruce and blinked rapidly. "What do you mean he's regressed?"

Bruce rubbed his face. "Just what I said. He's got no memory, but more than that, he's regressed and lost life skills. I can't identify any significant brain damage to account for his loss of abilities, but every scan I do is inconclusive. He's forgotten how to do the simplest things. It's as though he's literally regressed into childhood. He can't remember how to do a lot of things. He can't even dress himself, but he can take apart anything mechanical."

Fury sighed, sitting back in his seat and turning to look outside the helicarrier. "Okay, well we've got Contrail locked up tight. His father has been throwing lawyers at us left and right, but he backed off once his lawyers got the recordings of the Heart Association assault and the incident on the balcony. I don't think the man knew what his son was doing to Tony."

"What do you want us to do about Tony?" he asked, frowning.

"What can you do?" he asked.

Bruce shook his head. "Nothing, to be honest. We wait. The amnesia and regression is trauma induced as far as I can tell, though there could be a brain injury I've been unable to detect so far. The brain is a mystery and Tony's brain even more so. I could be wrong, and he could never come out of whatever this is. Tony's brain isn't like anyone else's, Director, you know that much. And all the scans in the world aren't going to tell me what's really going on. The concussion triggered mild swelling, and in a normal person, they'd recover quickly. But the swelling may have done more damage than we know in someone like Tony."

Fury nodded. "Alright, let's set up everyone in Stark Tower to deal with this. I'll send Natasha and Clint to help out and pull them off regular SHIELD missions. The last thing we need is Tony getting in trouble in this state. He's dangerous with all his faculties; I can't imagine what would happen if someone got their hands on him like this."

Bruce nodded and headed back to the tower. He'd left Steve in charge of Tony while he was gone. He couldn't be left alone for a moment, they found out. The first time they'd both left him in the dining room for a moment to talk in the living room, they came back to find he'd completely disassembled the toaster, the blender, and the electric skillet with a butter knife and was trying to cobble together pieces to make something that he didn't have the words to explain. His vocabulary had become severely limited, and Bruce assumed that it was some of the swelling had affected Brocca's area.

The next time Bruce had run to the bathroom for no more than five minutes and came back to find him in the middle of trying to pull apart the door control for the elevator that they'd locked so he couldn't run all over the tower. Bruce was beginning to wonder what he'd been like as an actual child, because so far, this semi-child state he was in was maddening.

When he put in the code and came out he found Tony laying in the middle of the large living room watching TV, utterly entranced by whatever it was. Tony had to be dressed and watched while he did the most basic things, and thus far, Steve was having a good time putting him into the oddest outfits. Today he was wearing a pair of blue shorts and a black t-shirt. Bruce didn't think he'd ever seen Tony wear shorts in his life. Where Steve was coming up with these odd bits of clothing was beyond him. He was barefoot and laying on his stomach with his head propped up with his hands and kicking his legs back and forth. Steve was sitting on the couch with a self-satisfied grin. Bruce came over and sat down beside him and snickered.

"That's cheating," Bruce said.

"Nope, not at all. No more than a mom putting a toddler in front of the Disney channel to get a moment's peace. I was about to go crazy, so I thought I'd see if he'd watch TV and for the first time today he stopped talking when I turned this on. Two hours later, and the most I get is a random comment when one episode ends and another begins. And the best part? Marathon," Steve said with a smile.

Bruce snickered. "Well, got to hand it to you, this is genius."

There was a buzz and Bruce got up and went to the elevator and unlocked it to let Clint and Natasha in with their bags. "Hey, guys," he said with a smile.

Natasha and Clint nodded. "How's he doing?"

Bruce smiled and motioned them to the living room. "First time he's been quiet since we brought him back from the helicarrier last week."

Clint frowned and looked at the TV. "What in the world's he watching?" He didn't think he'd ever seen Tony watch TV before other than the news.

"How it's made. Steve's had it on for like two hours and he hasn't moved," Bruce said with a smile. "I mean, he may currently have the seeming mental ability of a five year old, but he's still Tony Stark. Even a five year old Tony Stark had to be hard to keep interested. Not to mention, he isn't really that age, so he's still got all his facilities, at least I'm hoping he does."

They headed into the dining area where they could look into the living area still. The current episode was ending and there would be a break.

"Steve! See that?" they heard from the living room.

"Sure did, Tony. Oh, look, that's cool," he said.

"Um hum," came Tony's voice and he was quiet again.

Natasha grinned. "Okay, so that's cute, even if he is a grown man."

Bruce sighed. "What isn't cute is him taking apart everything he can get his hands on," he said with a sigh. "I've started a box of parts, out of necessity. I have never seen anything like it in my life, and I've worked with a bunch of smart kids. Tony takes the cake."

He pointed to a huge box filled with a bunch of various electronic and mechanical items. "We've lost a blender, a toaster, the microwave, a mixer, the hair dryer, and almost lost the controls to the elevator so far. And that's not counting what happens that we haven't located yet. He never stops talking, seriously, he's always asking questions about everything and telling us all sorts of random things, it's like there's no filter between his brain and mouth, not that there was much of one to start with."

Natasha nodded, sitting down. "So explain to us like we're three ourselves what exactly is going on with him?"

Bruce nodded. "Okay, he's lost a lot of language, we don't know why, but it makes him very frustrated because he can't get things across. I say he has the mentality of a five year old, but I honestly don't know. He's insanely curious and mischievous. Think a five year old with grown up Tony's skills with mechanics. He's forgotten almost all self-care routines, which is unusual for amnesia, and that has me worried. People with amnesia forget their past, they forget things like that, they don't regress like this. I don't know if it is trauma induced or if it is something organic, but the tests I run are inconclusive. I fear we may be dealing with brain injury that I can't identify from the concussion."

Clint arched a brow. "Wow, so is he still Tony?"

"Somewhere in there. I can't find any damage to long term memory centers, and he seems to be encoding new memories fine. Just know he's Tony…." Bruce frowned looking around. "Tony hopped up on caffeine and sugar going without sleep for three days, only all the time."

Natasha nodded as there was a yelp from the living room and they all went around and saw that Steve was the source of the yelp.

Tony had been seemingly watching his show, but there had been a break again, a longer one, and Tony had gotten distracted, it seemed and Steve had fallen into a light doze on the couch. So, in typical Tony fashion, Tony decided to do something to entertain himself. Unfortunately, doing something to entertain himself had ended up being turning the phone, the TV remote and the lamp into a small explosive device and setting it off by Steve and nearly setting the couch on fire. Steve was currently patting out the smoldering couch and Tony was giggling madly and muttering unintelligible things.

Steve stood up and glared at him. Bruce grabbed him by the wrist. "Steve…he doesn't understand."

"We can't let him do this kind of stuff, Bruce," Steve said, glancing at Tony who had stopped laughing and was staring sideways at the TV again.

Bruce shook his head. "And what do you suggest we do?" he asked.

"If he's going to act like a child, treat him like one, that's our only option. I know it isn't his fault, and he's not acting this way on purpose, but we can't just let him run around and do things like this! There have to be boundaries, and we're going to have to figure out how to keep him from hurting himself and everyone else!" he said, rubbing a hand over his blond head.

"And what are you going to do, spank him?" Clint said with a smirk.

The look on Steve's face said that he was not opposed to the idea. "Wait, no," Bruce said, shaking his head. "You are not about to do that. There are other methods. I am not about to explain to Fury that you've taken to spanking Tony Stark as a form of punishment."

Steve shook his head. "It was good enough in my time," he said with a shrug.

"Well, this isn't your time, now is it?" Bruce said with a shake of his head. "He isn't really a child, remember?"

Steve rolled his eyes. "We'll do it your way, but if he keeps it up, I'm telling you now, I'll turn him over my knee without a second thought, and he's not going to get out of my grip."

Natasha snickered at the image in her head of Steve spanking Tony. The snicker turned into a giggle then a laugh. The sight was stuck in her head and she ended up running into the kitchen for a drink, still smothering her laughter. Clint followed her, biting hard on his lip because the same images were going through his brain. Steve frowned and watched them go. Bruce was still staring at him.

"I'm serious, Bruce, don't think I'm not," he said, turning and heading toward his room, leaving Bruce with the troublesome Tony.

Tony got to the end of his episode and looked up to see Bruce sitting on an un-scorched piece of couch. Tony giggled and jumped up onto Bruce's lap, surprising him and hugged him. "Brucie, missed you," he said, straddling his lap with his arms wrapped around Bruce's neck. He snuggled into him and Bruce wrapped his arms around his back. Dammit, why did he have to be so adorable and troublesome at once?

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

The next couple weeks didn't improve Steve's opinion on Bruce's methods of "discipline" of the troublesome man-child. He would often find Bruce attempting to reason with him and could tell obviously it wasn't working. Tony was smart. He was quickly able to figure out how to manipulate Bruce into doing what he wanted him to do. To be honest, he was a brat, Steve thought. He was demanding and selfish, and he kept making things explode randomly. The latest, and they had no idea how he managed it, he was playing with the ever increasing box of parts, and exploded something in the middle of the dining room table that scorched the ceiling. They didn't realize there was anything in the box that _could_ explode. Leave it to Tony to figure it out.

It was honestly hard to remember at the time that he was a grown man and not a child. His language skills seemed to be improving, though, he'd progressed from one and two words to three and four word sentences. Bruce was confident that if they just waited it out, he'd start to improve more. Steve was beginning to think Tony was enjoying all the attention he was getting from everyone. He sat on the couch, a new one, thankfully, and watched the news as Tony crawled up beside him and pushed up under his arm.

"Stevie…" he said, frowning. "Mad at me?" he asked.

Steve smiled, petting Tony's hair gently. "No, Tony, I'm not mad at you. I'm just very frustrated about the explosion in the dining room this morning. You could have hurt yourself badly, you know," he said, giving Tony a stern look.

"I'm sorry. But it was fun," he said, big brown eyes wide and as innocent looking as anyone could want. Steve wasn't falling for it.

Steve ruffled his hair and shook his head. "I'm warning you, Bruce doesn't want it, but if you keep it up, I'm going to punish you, and you aren't going to like it."

Tony made a sour face. "Stevie, sorry," he said, ducking his head again against his chest and staring at the news on the TV.

Steve sighed. It had been a total of a month since they'd been basically babysitting the child-like Tony. He had no idea how someone as old as Tony could be so…annoyingly cute. He pulled him closer and he felt Tony adjust against him. One more incident and he really was going to spank him, whether Bruce said it was okay or not. He was seriously going to hurt himself at this rate.

Natasha came in with the groceries and Tony jumped up and ran into the kitchen immediately. Steve swore Natasha liked to spoil him because she always brought him something from the store.

"Natty, Natty!" he said with a grin, hopping from one foot to the other. "What you bring?" he asked with hopeful eyes.

Natasha smirked. "I don't know, Tony, I heard about your little explosion."

Tony frown. "Sorry, Natty," he said and Natasha ruffled his hair and he grinned.

She handed him a candy bar and Tony grinned, taking it to sit at the dining room table to eat it. At least they had managed to keep him to a few rules, though even that had been hard to do. He had a tendency to wander with food in his hands. Luckily, they had kept him out of the workshop. However, that was about to change.

Honestly, it wasn't really anyone's fault. It happened quickly, and it was because there had been a call from the director. Everyone was distracted for no more than ten minutes, and when they looked, Tony was gone. JARVIS wasn't able to trace him and indicated that Tony might have done something to his interface a few days previously because he was having trouble detecting bio-signs in the tower at all. So everyone decided to go about it the old fashioned way. Steve headed down to the shop, Bruce to the labs, Clint to the lobby, and Natasha to the roof. One of them would have to find him, they guessed.

That one turned out to be Steve, and just as he opened the door to the workshop, an explosion slammed him back out into the hallway. He gasped, running into the lab as smoke cleared and frowned as he saw Tony sitting in the middle of the floor looking extremely shocked and surprised and covered with soot and tiny cuts where debris had blown back over him. Luckily, the explosion had gone away from him and toward the door, so he hadn't been seriously injured. Steve snapped. He'd had enough. Tony could have killed himself after that. He stormed over and grabbed Tony up by the arm and drug him out toward the elevator without a word. Tony seemed too shocked by what had happened to say anything and went along without a struggle.

They reached the floor with Tony's room and he drug him into the bedroom and stood him in front of him. "Tony, you are going to hurt yourself. That blast would have killed you if it hit you. Do you understand that?"

Tony nodded and stared at Steve, obviously shaken by what had happened. He still didn't seem to be able to talk.

"And I'm done with you pulling these stunts. From now on, you do something like this, I'm going to punish you, understand?" he said sternly. Again, Tony just nodded, not really understanding at all what was going on.

Steve sat down on the bed and drug Tony over his lap in one fell swoop and swatted his ass hard, getting a surprised shout and squirm out of him. Steve opened his legs to support Tony's weight and pressed on hand on his back between his shoulders to keep him from getting off. He swatted his clothed rear again, and he gasped and whined, wriggling against Steve.

"Nope, you're getting ten swats, Tony Stark, no getting out of it," Steve said proceeding to lay eight more stinging slaps on his rear until he was sobbing against Steve's leg, grabbing the bed with one hand and Steve's leg with the other.

He then picked him up and held him against his chest, rubbing his back gently. "There, there, it's over, you did well, Tony, you did well, now are you going to do something like that again?" he asked, pushing him back and holding his face with both hands. He thumbed away the fresh tears that were flowing down his cheeks. Tony shook his head and Steve smiled, kissing his forehead. "Good, good," he said, pulling him to his chest again and then realized something extremely surprising. Tony was aroused, extremely aroused by the feel of the hardness digging into his stomach as Tony sat straddling his lap. That wasn't the idea at all, he thought to himself. Oh this was disturbing, he thought to himself, swallowing. All the blood in his body had just rushed south as well. Great.

He heard a knock at the door. Steve sighed, willing away the arousal that was threatening him. The door opened and he saw Bruce, who was frowning deeply.

"Why didn't you tell us you found him?" he asked, annoyed. "And why's he crying?" he asked, coming in and sitting down on the bed beside Steve, running a hand over Tony's head. He brought it back covered in soot and debris.

"Tony had a little accident down in his lab," Steve said, sighing. Bruce was going to mad at him for what he'd just done.

"Accident, is he okay?" Bruce said, looking over him, and noting some small cuts here and there, but Tony was curled up in Steve's lap and he couldn't see much. He'd buried his face in Steve's neck and had his arms latched around his chest tightly and he could hear sniffles and hiccups muffled by Steve's shirt. He looked up. "JARVIS let the others know we've got Tony and he's safe."

"Fine, the blast was aimed toward the hall; I got the brunt when I walked in and he was behind it. I think it really scared him though. It was enough force to have killed him easily if it had hit him though, so…" Steve trailed off from there.

"Steve, please tell me you didn't…you did. That's why he's so upset. I told you…" Bruce said, and Steve saw the greenish tint to his eyes.

"Okay maybe I shouldn't have, but I did it over his clothes, and not even half as hard as I could have, look," he said, pulling down the back of Tony's pants so Bruce could see there was barely a pinkish tinge to his rear. Tony still had his face buried in Steve's neck and was clinging to him and shivered when his clothes were moved. "But that's not the problem."

Bruce frowned. "What is the problem?"

"Huh, I think he um…liked it."

Bruce blinked. "What?" he asked.

Steve nodded. "Um, yeah. Like really, _really_ liked it."

Bruce frowned, still not understanding, so Steve grabbed Bruce's hand and shoved it between him and Tony. Bruce's eyes went wide as Tony ground against his hand with a low moan mixed with a sniff and a hiccup. He pulled his hand back and looked at Steve. "Well, isn't that interesting."

Steve nodded, unsure what to do with the situation. "What do we do about it?"

Bruce looked at him. "Um, don't do that again, would be my suggestion."

Steve nodded, a dark blush rising to his cheeks as Tony continued to try and rub himself against Steve's lower belly. It was obvious he was looking for friction even if his brain was currently not working completely normally, he still had the same urges and needs the adult Tony Stark had. Considering they knew for a fact it had been a long time, it was no wonder he was seeking stimulation.

Bruce gave Steve a cockeyed grin. "You're hard too, aren't you?"

Steve's face reddened even further. It was enough of an answer for Bruce. He rolled his eyes. "It's okay; you know it isn't exactly totally under your control when your body gets aroused. And anyone would be aroused by someone writhing on their lap like that."

Steve gulped loudly as Tony started whining. "What should I do with him?" he asked frantic.

"I'd just let him handle it himself, Steve," Bruce said with a mild smile. "Then go take a shower and handle your own situation," he said with a shrug. "I can take him," he said, reaching for Tony and sliding him away from Steve onto the bed. He was still clinging to Steve and he looked at Bruce with a wide eyed expression.

"Tony, you okay?" Bruce said, gently. Tony nodded but looked unsure of what was going on. "Here, let's go take a bath to make you feel better, right? You're covered with soot and stuff, buddy," he asked.

Tony smiled. "Like bath time," He said nodding at him. Bruce nodded at Steve who stood and left in obvious discomfort.

Bruce led Tony to the bathroom and drew the bubble bath for him. He seemed to love the bubbles. He got him out of his clothes and into the tub and he was quickly distracted by the bubbles. He wondered what exactly it was about the bubbles that drew his attention. Knowing Tony's mind, it could have been anything. Bruce scrubbed out the dust and dirt from his hair and took the chance to check over his wounds. A few surface cuts here and there were the limit of his injuries from the explosion. He had to wonder what it was nearly as bad as Steve had said. He hadn't gotten a chance to look at him, but he would have healed already anyway.

Tony was surprisingly cooperative, though, and Bruce wondered why that was. He smiled to himself, considering that perhaps a little corporal discipline was indeed the trick to dealing with Tony. Of course, the side effect that it aroused him wasn't what Steve was looking for. Tony turned to look at Bruce and smiled.

"Daddy Brucie?" he said, surprising Bruce; that was a first. "Where daddy Stevie go?"

"Daddy Brucie and daddy Stevie? Is that our names now?" Bruce asked, helping him dry off. Thankfully, the bath seemed to have distracted him enough that the arousal had faded.

Tony nodded. "I like."

"Okay, Tony, whatever you like, let's get you in some dry clothes, how about that?" Bruce said, taking him back into the bedroom that he and Steve alternated nights sleeping in with him. He dressed him quickly in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt because he had a feeling he'd be falling asleep before long. It wasn't very late, but having an explosion nearly take off his head would certainly tire him out. He headed down to the common room where Clint and Natasha were watching TV.

"Birdie!" Tony exclaimed, leaping onto the couch by Clint. "What's doing, Birdie?" he asked.

"Even with the brain of a kid, you still gotta call me weird names," he said to him and smiled.

Natasha smirked at him. "How are you Tony? You smell like you just had a bath."

Tony nodded. "Had to cuz I covered in yuck."

Natasha looked at Bruce who rolled his eyes. "Someone found his way down to the workshop a while ago, that's where he disappeared to, and exploded something all over the place. He was quite a mess."

"Daddy Stevie was mad," he said to Natasha with wide eyes.

Natasha held back a giggle. "I bet. You could have hurt yourself. Wait, dad Stevie?" she said, looking up at Bruce who had a smirk on his own face.

"Apparently that's our names, daddy Brucie and daddy Stevie, according to Tony," he said with a sigh.

Natasha smiled. "That's sweet though, you guys do take care of him most the time."

Steve came into the room, still looking a bit rosy in the cheeks. Everyone turned and his rose blush turned a bit red. He ducked into the kitchen to strange looks from Clint and Natasha.

"He was a bit rattled and got some of the blast," Bruce said. He looked to Tony. "Don't you think you should say something to Steve?"

Tony nodded and got up, going slowly into the kitchen where Steve was pulling out things to make for dinner. Tony ducked his head shyly.

"Daddy Stevie," he said, looking up at him from under his lashes.

Steve turned at the phrase and looked at Tony, and almost got an instant hard on. How had he never noticed that Tony was so damn adorable? He swallowed. "Wh-what?"

Tony smiled. "I sorry about 'splosion. I didn't mean it," he said, and Steve was happy to see he was putting together somewhat coherent sentences now. Verbs were still an issue, especially be verbs for some weird reason. Other things were coming back slowly, almost as though he were going through the developmental stages like a real child would but rapidly.

"And I'm sorry about what I did. I overreacted, and I am just glad you're okay," Steve said with a nod.

Tony nodded, looking down and wringing his hands for a moment before looking back at Steve and smiling. "I love you," he said and turned and almost ran out of the kitchen, leaving Steve to stare into space with a pinched face and an extremely annoying problem once again.

Tony came out and jumped on the couch and hid his face in Natasha's bosom, surprising her and Clint both. "What are you doing?" she asked, trying to pry Tony's face from her cleavage. Had he been himself, he would have been tossed across the room already.

Bruce frowned, wondering what had happened. He didn't seem upset. He looked into the kitchen to see busy with dinner. He too had a blush on his cheeks still. Nothing bad, obviously, but something that had embarrassed them both. He went back to find Natasha had dislodged him from her breasts and he was not interested in a mystery diagnosis show. Steve called dinner and everyone ate and Bruce took the night with Tony. He took him back, very sleepy it seemed, after dinner. He got him into bed and Tony grabbed his arm.

"Daddy Brucie?" he said quietly.

"What is it, Tony?" he asked smiling as he sat down beside him.

"I love you too," he said with wide eyes and Bruce realized he must have told Steve that before.

Bruce smiled and leaned over kissing his forehead. "Well, that's good, because I've always loved you, Tony," he said quietly before getting up to change into his own pajamas. By the time he got back, he was deep asleep. Bruce smiled. He was completely innocent when he slept and looked just like Tony of several months ago. Bruce leaned over and kissed his cheek again before he laid down on the other side of bed and fell into a deep sleep of his own.

Something woke him and he realized it was the pinch of a needle in his thigh. His eyes flew open and the hulk was railing at the back of his mind. Everything was fuzzy around him and he felt someone's hands on him. Voices around him and he thought he heard Tony screaming for help and to put him down. Bruce couldn't get his arms and legs to work, and the hulk was furious that he couldn't get out to Tony. Bruce managed to roll off the bed and turn over to see the window was cut out and a dark figure, he couldn't make out who or even what it was, was holding Tony against him and then they were just gone. The world blacked out and spiraled away for a while.

"Bruce!" he heard. "Bruce, wake up!"

Bruce shook and his eyes fluttered open to bright lights. He winced and turned his head. He was in the medical bay. He groaned as he felt a terrible headache blooming behind his eyes. "Shh, Steve, don't yell," he muttered, sitting up and swinging his legs over the edge of the bed.

"I'm not yelling," Steve said, still sounding too loud to Bruce's sensitive ears.

"Okay, they took Tony, who were they?" Bruce said, pushing himself off the bed and stumbling to the computer.

Steve shook his head and steadied Bruce. "No idea, Bruce. Whoever did it hacked JARVIS, or rather, hacked around JARVIS. They knew what they were doing. They came in through the window, dissolved the glass with something, and injected you with something I've never seen before," he said as he watched Bruce go over the files.

"This is impossible, not even my hulk tranquilizer works this fast," he said as he looked over the formula for the stuff they'd used on him. "How long was I out?"

Steve shifted uncomfortably. Bruce stood up and saw that Natasha and Clint both stood in the background. "How long?" he asked quietly. The unspoken question was how long had Tony been missing.

"Two days, Bruce," Steve said quietly. "We've done everything we could to wake you, nothing worked, and Fury has SHIELD on high alert and every available team is searching for him. But…unless you can find some clues to lead us to him, we haven't found anything."

Bruce sat down on the stool heavily and blinked slowly. "There's been no ransom demands? Nothing?"

Steve shook his head. "They must want something from Tony other than money, but he can't even remember who he is, I… If they're trying to get some plans or something from him, he will have no idea."

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Tony was alone and very confused. He was sitting curled up on a cot of some sort inside a small room with a metal door on it. There was a little window in and every once in a while someone would peek inside. There was a small sink and a toilet and other than that there was nothing in it. Every noise scared him and he just wanted something familiar. The only thing familiar he had was the pajamas he was wearing when the men came in and grabbed him from bed. In the back of his mind, things that he knew he should know were trying to push to the surface, but somehow he just wasn't ready for them. And thinking about those things gave him such a headache…

Eyes came to the window again and he flinched away, covering his face and cowering in the corner. The eyes disappeared and he chewed on his knuckle while his heart beat rapidly.

Outside, the owner of the eyes turned to face several others in the larger room. "What the fuck is that?"

"T-tony Stark, sir," one of them said quietly.

"And what the fuck is wrong with him?" the first man asked. "He is barely functional."

"Um, sir, it says here that he suffered a severe concussion recently, and possible traumatic brain injury as a result, but it also might be post traumatic amnesia with no organic cause," one of the henchmen said, looking at a file.

The first man reached out and thumbed through the file. "Why didn't we know this before?"

"I…I got that from the Stark database while-while Sara and Jacks were breaking into to nab him upstairs," the henchman said, chewing his lip. "W-wasn't public record, sir, all tr-treatment was done by B-baner and Shield."

The first man crossed his hands behind his back, his tailored three piece suit impeccable even in the dingy underground bunker they were in. The dust and dirt didn't seem to touch it. He nodded. "Alright. We'll have to do something about it. Send for Dr. Malldrew. Tell him we'll need the elctrostimulus device, as well as the nanos were going to test on the inmates."

"Yes, sir," came the curt reply and the henchman took off.

The well-dressed man sat down and crossed his legs at the knee and steepled his fingers under his chin. Yes, perhaps if they couldn't get the information the old fashioned way, more invasive means would be necessary.


	4. Releaseing His Demons

**Hush Now**

**Chapter Four**

_Releasing His Demons_

Tony was scared beyond belief. His mind just wouldn't center on anything except the fact he was alone and he had no idea what was happening. The door opened and a man in a nice suit entered. He looked up him and was still.

"So, Tony, any chance you know who I am?" the blonde man said, kneeling in front of him. "I mean, I seriously doubt you'd know me even if you had all your marbles, but I guess its worth a shot."

Tony shook his head, staring at him with wide eyes. He had no idea who the guy was. "I…w-wanna go home…" he said quietly. "I want…I want B-brucie and Stevie…please…"

The blonde headed man ran a hand over his short hair. "Okay, see here's the problem, I need you, the real you, not this fucked up shell that thinks he's a child. I need you to solve a problem for me, and I need it done now. If you can't do it, I'm going to kill you. So you see my problem?"

"I don't understand," Tony said, staring at him. "Why…why am I here?"

Another man stepped in behind him and the man in the suit looked up. "Doctor, you see the problem?"

The doctor sighed, rubbing a hand through gray hair. "Hm, yes," he said with a slight German accent. "Seems some therapy is in order, yes?" he said with a smile. "How far can I take it, Mr. Killian?"

Killian stood and turned to him. "As far as you need. I need his mind, though. Fix him."

The doctor turned to Tony as Killian left the small cell and moved forward. "Tony, tell me, what do you remember? Do you remember me?"

Tony looked at the older man and felt a shiver go down his spine. This was wrong. "I..I don't remember anything…I woke up and Daddies there. That all."

"Daddies?" the doctor asked, sitting beside Tony's curled up form. "Was that Steve and Bruce?"

Tony nodded. "Um hum, they…they take care of m-me… I wanna go back…please…" he said, tears starting to fall.

"I'm afraid I can't do that Tony. You have a job to do, and I have to make sure you do it. So we're going to spend a lot of time together until your head is back to normal. And you will be in a pain, I can assure you. A lot of pain, before I'm done," he said, grinning and Tony wanted to do anything but be there.

Malldrew reached out and grabbed his arm and Tony tried to push him off but for an old guy, Malldrew had a grip. Why did he feel…familiar? He managed to get him off the bed, but Tony was stubborn and using his weight against him. Malldrew dropped him, sending him sprawling and leaned out, calling a couple of the others to help him. Tony struggled as two other men picked him up easily off the floor and he was moved to another room and strapped to some sort of table. He turned one arm over and injected something into a vein near the top.

"Now, the problem with you is you suffered a nasty little concussion, thanks to our dear friend Mr. Contrail, the stupid idiot. He gave your brain a little cognitive realignment and it jogged loose the last round of nanites I injected into you a few years ago that were meant to remain dormant, and they malfunctioned. Why no one can follow orders, I'll never know. He'll be dealt with soon, so don't worry, my dear boy," he said and Tony watched with his eyes as he moved around. His head had been strapped down onto the table and some sort of rubber mouthpiece put in his mouth.

"And you see, erasing memories, blanking a person's mind, that's so terribly easy, but we don't want to do that with you. We want you to remember everything, in vivid detail, but there's a problem with that, you see, because this little device is going to make you remember things I would rather you not remember." He sighed and shook his head. "Goodness, what a mess those things made you," he said. "That's what I get for using faulty technology. These nanites though, they'll fix it. And they'll erase all those nasty memories of me, too. We can't really have you remember how many times I've seen you."

He patted his cheek and smiled. "The mouthpiece will keep you from breaking your teeth or biting off your tongue. Not that that can happen, but you know."

He turned to a woman. "Hand me the drill," he said to her. He came back around and began wiping something on Tony's temple. "Now, what we're doing here is applying direct currents to the brain itself, so we'll be drilling an opening into either side of your head," he said, moving to use the alcohol pads on the other side and marking it with something. "There we are. Then, this complex computer program, hopefully, injects these nanites along with the wire as it threads it down through your brain; into your beautiful brain. Isn't that lovely?" he said with an almost manic grin. "And you won't be able to move because I've given you a paralytic, however, I have to have you awake. Unfortunately, that means you'll still feel everything. Sorry about that, my boy."

Tony's eyes were wide and he couldn't move his head as the doctor pressed against his skull with the drill and he would have screamed but he couldn't even move. His world was spinning out of control as he felt him finish the first side and move to the other. He felt the blood trickling down his face and wanted it to stop, whatever it was to stop. He moved back and dropped a device over his head that sent two probes shooting into the openings he'd drilled in his skull. He screamed against the gag as something began working its way into his brain. While of course, he couldn't feel the actual wire, he felt an intense burning sensation working through him. It was like his very blood was on fire. After a while his body seized from some sort of shock.

"There, now, first treatment, done," came the doctor's voice but it sounded hollow and far away. The thing over his head moved up and he was moving into a wheelchair. "Take him and lay him down on the cot. I won't need him until tomorrow."

The world spun sickly as he was dumped into the cot and something tossed over him. He didn't realize he was sobbing until he was already doing it. The memory was vivid as though he were living it. Whatever they'd done, worked, perhaps too well.

Malldrew watched through the window as Tony began to thrash, the nanites beginning their painful work to uncover memories that had been suppressed. He knew it would take four treatments. The first injection was the nanites that were supposed to reawaken the memories that the first nanites had suppressed. The second round of nanites were supposed to go in a fix the first set of flawed nanites, which would resupress all memories of Malldrew in Tony's memory. The third group of nanites was the most important, though, they were the ones that would carry the latent xtremis coding. The final group of nanites would either repair the damage the first three rounds of nanites left behind, or they would kill him. They also would leave behind the coding that Malldrew would be able to activate remotely.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Young Tony tasted blood for the first time at six. Most kids his age probably would have fallen off the money bars, or their bike, or some such nonsense, as Howard Stark called it. Tony, though, had made a huge mistake tonight, and had walked in while his father was arguing with a man in a dark suit. The man had seen Tony and approached him, despite Howard yelling at him to come back, to stay away from Tony. When his hand touched Tony's cheek, his face had heated up immediately and he woke up when he was slapped hard by Howard some time later.

He was now sitting in his room nursing a split lip courtesy of his own father. He wanted nothing more but to make Howard happy, to make him see him as something worthy, and maybe, just maybe show he cared. That wasn't Howard, though, not in the least. And tonight, the mistake was simple, he interrupted when he was talking to a man with long dark hair that Howard was arguing with. He didn't remember the look on his father's face, didn't remember the complete fear that ran through Howard's eyes.

Tony's mom was overseas, again. She spent a lot of time traveling, and Tony was beginning to think it was just to stay away from his father. At six, his skills were amazing to most, but not good enough to his father. There was a knock and the door opened to reveal Jarvis, their butler, coming in with a tray of milk and cookies, and a small first aid kit. Tony looked up at him with teary eyes and Jarvis didn't speak as he cleaned his face and sat in the chair beside the bed while Tony ate the snack he'd brought him. As usual, after these things, Jarvis didn't talk, and Tony didn't either. Though this was the first time Howard had made Tony bleed, it wasn't the first time he'd hit him. Howard tended to lash out before he thought, though, and more often than not it was he who sent Jarvis to check on him.

Jarvis left quietly and Tony turned over and went to sleep. He just wanted to be loved by his father, was that so much to ask?

Several more incidents happened after that. There were more times when Howard would lash out, and Jarvis would come by, but nothing serious. Afterward, Tony swore that someone was in his room sometimes, but there was no one there. The strange man appeared a couple more times, and each time, Howard had been so angry with Tony afterward. He didn't understand. Once he showed up as Tony was leaving school, and tried to give him a lollipop, which he'd refused.

That night, he woke up when he felt someone touch his shoulder. He blinked and realized his father was sitting on his bed beside him. He heard the door open again.

"Sir, are you coming down for a drink?" came Jarvis from the door.

"Yeah, I'm coming," he said with a sigh, and patted Tony's shoulder.

When he was gone, Tony sat up; he grabbed a stuffed bear he rarely held and stared at the darkened doorway. He didn't know what to think, and he couldn't imagine who he could ask. After that, he slept with the bear clutched tightly to his chest.

It might have been okay, if he hadn't been abducted a year later outside the school. He'd never been as scared in his life as the men tied him up and gagged him, leaving him on the floor on a dirty mattress. It was at an old abandoned warehouse, and he wasn't even sure how long they'd driven to get there. At eleven now, he was still small for his age, and one the men kept looking at him strangely. He overheard him arguing with one of the others about something. The leader, apparently, went to pick up the ransom, though, on the third day, leaving the second one who kept looking at Tony with the weird look alone with him.

Tony had stared as he came into the room where he was laying on the old mattress. It wasn't a hugely organized operation, and he had his doubts that his father was actually taking ransom to the pick-up, more likely they were going to bust the guy and make him tell them where Tony was. Tony had felt his heart beat out of his chest, though when he'd dropped down to his knees beside him and started touching him. He screamed and suddenly there was a loud bang and he looked up to see the same guy, the man in the suit, kneeling down and pulling Tony to sit up.

"Hi Tony," he said. "I'm Dr. Malldrew, and I'm going to help you," he said, and Tony watched as he injected something into his arm and he blacked out.

. Tony woke weeks later, in a hospital nearby, with no memory of what had happened. They'd arrested the other kidnapper, and he had told them where to look, but Tony had been gone. He was found several days later in a different building.

The rest of the memories had a similar theme, all involving the strange Dr. Malldrew. Another incident where he was kidnapped and

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

"Why aren't we any closer to finding them?" Steve asked, pacing in front of Fury's desk. "It's been five days already, and we've heard nothing."

"Steve, I know you're impatient, but we're working as fast as we can," Fury said, rubbing his head. The man was worse than a panicking wife.

Bruce came in and sat down, shaking his head. "Nothing on the components the injection they gave me. All easily bought. The only thing that has given me any clue is the chemical used to melt the glass. It's not on the market, and made by one company, Advanced Idea Mechanics."

"So whoever it was works for them or something?" Steve asked, nearly knocking his chair over when he stood.

Bruce shook his head. "Possibly, or it was stolen from their place. I've arranged a meeting with the CEO, a man named Aldrich Killian, this afternoon."

Fury nodded. "Take Widow with you," he said. "And you, calm the fuck down," he said to Steve.

Steve sighed. "I'm just worried."

"I know, Steve, I know. You got a bit attached to him while you had to play daddy," he said with a sigh. "We're doing everything we can. As far as we know, he could be out of the country by now."

Steve nodded and headed back to the Tower to wait for Bruce to return from his visit with this Aldrich guy. Bruce, meanwhile headed out to speak with him, stopping to pick up Natasha from one of the SHIELD choppers along the way. He got in easy enough, and it seemed to be a tech company to rival Stark Industries. That alone was enough to raise Bruce's suspicions. They had good reason to want Tony out of the way.

They were taken to a nice office and sat down by a nice secretary. Natasha had come in the guise of Bruce's attaché. A few minutes later a blonde man in a suit came in and sat down.

"Dr. Banner!" he said with a smile that Natasha spotted as fake. "What can I do for such an esteemed visitor?"

"I'm investigating a break in at Stark Tower, and the only lead I have is something that comes from your R&D department," Bruce said, handing over a file.

"Well, indeed it does. A high potency glass solvent. I've haven't even seen this out of testing…I'm not sure how it could have gotten out…" he said, punching in a number on the phone. "Send up Carl from R&D please," he said into it and smiled. "Well, one way to find out if we have any missing," he said with a nod.

"Carl," Killian said with a smile as a reedy thin man with thick horn rimmed glasses came in looking nervous.

"Sir?" he asked.

"Are we missing, oh about seven grams of Compound TR-75, perchance?" he said, looking at the folder Bruce had handed him.

The man looked shocked. "Um, yes sir, at inventory this morning, we are down 8.5 grams of TR-75. I've just launched the investigation into trying to figure out what happened, I'm sure its just been shelved elsewhere…"

"Or it could have been used to break into Stark Tower almost a week ago," Killian said, arching a brow at him.

Carl gaped like a fish. "I…I don't know sir, we inventory weekly, and I just…"

Killian smiled. "Carl, find out what happened to it. Immediately, or you're fired."

Carl nodded and skittered away out the door. "Now, Dr. Banner, can I give you a call when I figure this out?"

Bruce nodded. "Of course, of course, I'd appreciate it, here's my private lab number. I'll answer anytime."

Natasha nodded, shaking his hand next, only her purpose was more subversive. She attached an almost invisible track chip to his wrist when her hand lingered and she gave him an eye flutter of interest. "Thanks so much, Mr. Killian," she said softly. He smiled back and she left with Bruce, making sure to give a little backward glance to him.

When they got to the car she sighed. "Men are so easy," she muttered, rolling her eyes with a grin at Bruce.

"I'm glad of that. So you think he'll go to Tony right away if we're right?" he asked.

She nodded. "Oh yeah, he knows we're onto his company. He'll have to make sure he's covered all his tracks well enough. That tracker is the newest Stark's come up with. Nothing can pick it up and it's practically impervious to damage. He won't even notice the thing. Most likely, he'll wash it off in the shower tomorrow morning and only then because the adhesive is only good for twelve hours. Before then, it won't come off."

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Tony gasped as he came awake but he was strapped into the table again. "No, not again," he whined and looked up to see the doctor over him again.

"Hello, Tony, so what memory did we jog yesterday?" he asked, smirking. Tony's brow knitted and he felt his lip quiver.

"You, you were there, always you…" he said gasping for breath.

"Good, now today, we make those things disappear," he said, smiling again.

He put the headpiece down and watched as Tony's eyes rolled up when the system began pouring the nanites into him. Of course, Dr. Malldrew thought it was amazing because his nanites were working this time, actually working. When he was done, memories repeated before his eyes, but not the ones with the doctor, no, he couldn't see him. Instead, his mind was filling in the blanks in terrible, horrible ways.

The third day dawned and Tony couldn't even think of fighting them as they strapped him into the machine again, spending the rest of the day with the world spinning sickeningly around him.

The fourth day, the last treatment was given. Malldrew smiled as he watched over him. It was the last time and he would either live or die. Tony was wracked with intense pain. Finally, sleep claimed him and he couldn't do anything but relive the nightmares over and over again. He couldn't think; couldn't speak. Nothing.

The fifth day, Killian was to return for the results. Malldrew had him strapped into the machine again, but he wasn't doing anything to him, he was done with the procedure already. He sighed. He might have burned out his mind after all. Oh well, he thought, the data was excellent. He looked over the scans and was pleased. Time to enact the rest of his plan, which might kill him, or might not. Either way, the experiments were a success. He tapped into the controls and Tony's body arched and keened as blood began to trickle from his ears and the corners of his mouth and eyes. Malldrew smiled, turning and walking out, smirking.

"Hail Hydra," he said softly to the camera above his head and left.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Bruce, Natasha, Steve and Clint followed Killian's signature to an empty lot in the middle of New York. According to the tracer, they were standing on top of him. Natasha looked around and shook her head. "He's under us."

Bruce took off his glasses and handed them to Steve just as his muscles started to ripple and bust through his shirt. Less than ten minutes later, a skinny Bruce was putting them back on in the middle of a tunnel that led to a stairwell that was under the lot. Steve led the way with Bruce backing him up and Natasha and Clint watching the rear. So far, the place was empty, and that surprised them all. Finally they came to a source of light up ahead.

Steve jogged forward and opened a door onto a room that looked like some sort of surgery or medical room and saw Killian standing beside a medical bed of some sort that Tony had been strapped into, and he was obviously freaking out. He looked up, both hands in his hair and shook his head.

"I…what…they're gone…all of them…and…and…" he stammered.

Bruce ran around and ran up beside the bed Tony was on. He was still in the pajamas he'd been in when he was taken, and was dirty and his face was drawn badly. He looked like he hadn't been given food or anything the entire time he was gone. "What the hell did you do to him?" Bruce said, looking up.

Killian shook his head. "It was a memory enhancer, that's all, it was non-invasive, it was just…just…it wasn't this! I needed him to solve something, for Xtremis…I needed his brain…and I asked the doctor…"

Bruce peeled open one eye and stepped back. "What the hell," he muttered.

Steve moved and had Killian pinned to the wall. "What did you do to him?"

"I don't know!" Kilian said.

Natasha shook her head and started pulling up the files. After a minute she muttered something in Russian under her breath. "Steve, look at this," she said, rolling back the footage of the doctor leaving.

"Hail Hydra."

"They were hydra. You had Hydra working for you?" Natasha said, turning toward Killian.

He shook his head. "Hydra?" he asked. "I don't know about Hydra. But everyone is gone, all the doctors, nurses, everyone that was here, this facility was fully staffed…"

Bruce looked up. "I need to get him to the helicarrier, I can't tell what they did to him. He's had something…I…I don't even begin to know what…"

Bruce fiddled with the controls and got the table to release the clamps holding him in place and Steve moved forward and picked him up before he could slide off the table. Natasha copied off the files and as soon as she did they heard a bonging sound. Everyone looked up.

"Auto-destruct system initiated. Evacuate facility. Hydra thanks you. T-minus five minutes."

"Oh no," Steve muttered, taking off at a run back the way they'd come. Everyone else started running, Killian following the others as the countdown continued in the background. Finally they managed to get the area and they scrambled up out of the hole just as the entire place collapsed in on itself. Luckily, the exit was away from it far enough that they avoided the worst.

Steve sighed, looking down at Tony's unconscious form. Blood was crusted around his nose, under his ears and around his eyes. His lips were chapped and bloody and he hoped that they hadn't been too late. He ran to the SUV and loaded Tony into the seat and hopped on his bike. Natasha jumped on behind him and Bruce got in the SUV beside Clint.

Killian looked at them. "What about me?"

"You're lucky we don't have room for you," Natasha said as Steve took off toward the closest landing area where SHIELD could pick them up.

Less than fifteen minutes later, Bruce had Tony hooked up to every machine imaginable. He was running every test he could to try and understand exactly what they'd done. A few minutes later he joined the others to view the footage. They started at the beginning, when Tony was brought in, and then they stopped when this Dr. Malldrew seemed to be talking to the camera. Steve pulled it up on the large screen.

"Good day, Avengers," came the slightly German accented voice of Dr. Malldrew. "I am certain you have found your missing Avenger and gotten the information from my computer databanks, which by the way, I'm sure you noticed destroyed the facility. I thought you should know that this plot is much thicker than you'd like to believe. In the end, Killian was a puppet, and Hyrdra got what it wanted, the perfect test subject."

Steve frowned and looked at the others. "You see, your Tony Stark is unique, very unique actually, and that sort of mind…it doesn't come along but once in a hundred or so years. Twice if you count his father. Foolish, we were, when we had Howard Stark killed. He would have been more useful to us as a test subject. As far as your Tony Stark, by this point, he's possibly dead, dying or repairing. Any one of those three is possible at five days outset of the experiments I've run begun to run him. I'm sure you want all the details, but where would the fun in that be? I'll tell you this, his mind is beautiful. His blood has also been infused with some very specific nanites. Those are what will either kill him or help him repair.

"And do tell Mr. Contrail that he screwed up a perfectly simple mission. Good luck!"

The video feed continued and they watched as Malldrew began the testing and even Natasha had to look away now and then. What was going through his mind, they couldn't see, but they knew it was terrible and traumatic. At the end, when he spoke Hail Hydra into the screen, they sat staring. Everyone looked to Bruce for an update.

"I…I can't do anything but wait. I detect the nanites, and I'm running them through everything I've got, but without Tony, I don't know. That's not my area of expertise. Tony could pull it apart in ten minutes, I imagine," Bruce said, putting his head in his hands. "I don't think he's had anything except maybe some water, not nearly enough at that, the entire time they've had him. He's malnourished and whatever he did, he actually drilled into his skull for it. There's traces of damage to the brain tissue, but it is almost microscopic. I don't know what to expect when he wakes up."

Steve groaned. "So we're nowhere and we don't know what he was doing except running experiments for Hydra? And apparently Contrail is Hydra. Why would this doctor say that?"

Bruce nodded. "That's all we've got. My guess is Hydra wasn't happy at the chance of losing Stark for the experiments they wanted done."


End file.
